This just wasn’t for me. No recipe interest me and my husband .

I did recommend it to a few friends who would like this one .

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I a great book of easy recipes with yummy Mediterranean food.

If you’re looking for mouthwatering foods for a cocktail party or get-together, Mediterranean Small Plates: Platters and Spreads from the World's Healthiest Cuisine is definitely the book you’ll want to have on your cookbook shelf. It’s full of fabulous ideas covering several Mediterranean countries, including Spain, France, Greece, Turkey, The Balkans, and the Middle East. The recipes are for dishes that can be served either as main dishes or appetizers, and are the kind of dishes that will appeal to a large audience.

The recipes are written in the traditional form, and are easy to follow. While some recipes call for foreign ingredients, these can be easily obtained at specialty grocery stores or on the internet. The extra effort is worth it. There is enough variety in the recipes that anyone will be able to make a good party menu that will appeal to any group. There are also some suggested menus at the end of the book that are suitable for any party. Incidentally, the meatballs with pine nuts are divine.

All told, anyone who likes tapas or small plates of appetizers will want to pick up this excellent cookbook for great ideas. There are recipes that can be made for small dinners, also, so this cookbook can be used for dozens of family meals or for entertaining. This is a cookbook that will be used often. It is highly recommended for both beginning and advanced cooks who like to serve innovative food.


Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an e-ARC of Mediterranean Small Plates by Clifford Wright.
This cookbook if perfect for anyone looking to create food that encourages healthy eating. Beautiful photographs and easy to follow recipes make this book a cookbook to add to your collection.

Mediterranean Small Plates: Platters and Spreads from the World's Healthiest Cuisine includes cuisine from the whole region. The introduction includes a list of ingredients key to the cuisine. There are information boxes scattered throughout that are a different color that include interesting tidbits. They include things like component recipes, like bread and pizza dough, for instance.

The recipes are in distinct sections, which I have listed below with some of my favorites.

Tapas from Spain: Zucchini and Bell Pepper Frittata; Chickpeas with Chorizo Sausage; Shrimp and Garlic; Marinated Cauliflower Salad

Hors d' Oeuvre from France: Tapenade; Corsican-Style Pizza Flamiche; Homemade Ricotta

Antipasti from Italy: White Beans and Lentils with Shrimp; Pizza Style Frittata; Polenta with Porcini Mushrooms

Meze from Greece, Turkey, and the Balkans: Spanakopita; Grilled Feta Cheese in Grape Leaves; Greek Cocktail Meatballs in Sauce; The Imam Fainted (Famous Turkish Meze)

Mazza from the Middle East and North Africa: Hummus; Kibbe with Yogurt; Braised Lemony Chickpeas; Red Beets with Yogurt; Stuffed Grape Leaves in Olive Oil

The end of the cookbook includes menus for parties, suggested from different regions. Overall, there are not enough photographs of the finished dishes. Many of the recipes are ones that are easily sourced in other places, but those looking for a good compilation of small plate meals may like Mediterranean Small Plates.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy by NetGalley and the publisher. The decision to read and review this cookbook was entirely my own.

Truly wanting to be eating everything in this book right now. Just some amazing Medetterean recipes.

I should have looked into the content a little more before going in. i am a vegetarian bordering on vegan and hoped to find something interesting here., but there was nothing for me. Since I cannot actually comment on the content of the book, I cannot provide a complete review. i think it is colourful and has enough content to satisfy many others who are curious about the cuisine.

It seems the further I get from the Mediterranean, the more I fall in love. Ergo I jumped at the chance to get this from Netgalley. In hindsight, the attempt to cover the whole shooting match should have warned me this was not what I was looking for. I raised my eyebrows several times – the non-spicy fried potatoes with aioli that were the author’s patatas bravas; the dish from central France, well away from the Mediterranean; the repetition of a pork and pine nut meatballs recipe – but that can be lived with if the ideas, the recipes are inspirational. They’re not. Some of them felt very simple reconstructions of the region’s charms. Others were more involved, just not for me. It’s great knowing how to make my own ricotta, but I’m probably not going to do it. I’m probably not going to look much at this cookbook again either. It fits a narrow demographic of people interested enough in cooking to want a book of Mediterranean recipes, but not so interested that they wouldn’t rather get lots of books covering each cuisine in greater detail. For that demographic, I daresay this book will please, but that’s not me.

Yum, Mediterranean Small Plates has so many great recipes and ideas that my family will have the taste of sunshine for months to come. Would recommend.

Loved to travel around the Mediterranean through the food presented in the book. The recipes are nice and simple to follow and you can discover so much about the cultures that surround the sea.

This book is amazing for entertaining or just for your family. Growing up my mom would often entertain with a lot of little bites (not miniature food but something you’d have a little bit of this a bite of that.). So when I saw this book I knew I would love it and I was right.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harvard Common Press, and the author Clifford Wright for the advanced copy of Mediterranean Smal Plates for my review in return for my honest opinion.

This book's photography is gorgeous! The Mediterranean Small Plates takes the somewhat intimidating task of putting together a small plate gathering and making it look effortless! Each page is laid out with simple step-by-step instructions, proper quantities, and suggested pairings along with photos showing beautiful plating and presentation. With every section of the book, I felt inspired by the different types of occasions and events the recipes would be perfect for. After reading this book and sampling some of the recipes you may never want to host another full sit-down dinner again when there are so many interesting small plate options and combinations. I love to give cookbooks as hostess and housewarming gifts---this book will definitely be on my list of gift books!

You can be adventurous with Mediterranean meals
Award-winning author and cook Clifford Wright presents his book "Mediterranean Small Plates. Boards, Platters, and Spreads from the World's Healthiest Cuisine", published by Quarto Publishing Group – Harvard Common Press. After the introduction the cookbook offers recipes from Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, the Balkans, the Middle East, and North Africa. It comes in a great design and attractive photos of the various dishes. There is additional information, e.g. about "Olive Oil and Its Potential and Actual Health Benefits", "Celeriac", "Preparing Artichoke Bottoms", or the recipe for "Basic Bread and Pizza Dough". Wright says about the recipes: "Every recipe in this book is an appetizer, but many of these recipes are much more, and much less, because throughout the Mediterranean it is not a shared culinary tradition that the appetite needs an opening, a stimulation. In many cultures, especially in countries of North Africa and the Middle East, the notion of an appetizer is foreign. Keep in mind that the Mediterranean is a vast region, and people come from many different cultures, so even though their cuisines are founded on the same trinity of the olive, the grape, and wheat, they eat differently. This book, then, is not what it appears: a book of appetizers. Instead, it is an introduction to the way people eat in the Mediterranean" (p. 7-8).
At the end of the book suggested party menus, valuable conversion tables from spoons, cups, and ounces to milliliters and grams as well as from °F to °C can be found as well as a detailed index. I really appreciated the list "The Basic Little Foods". I recommend this cookbook for all those who are interested in the Mediterranean cuisine and for those who want to try new recipes.
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#MediterraneanSmallPlates #Netgalley

Bringing back to the market something nearly twenty years old, this still feels fresh – and it would certainly be a lot less yummy if it wasn’t. There is a luxury here that some people will not agree with – octopus, saffron, caviar dishes even, in several places – but the Mediterranean diet, one of the more classically admired and sustained ways of life when it comes to food, can also be something as simple as chick peas and chorizo together with at most three other ingredients.

After a bit of a waffle at the start, this invites us to tour the Med, cruising from French hors d’oeuvres, to Spanish tapas, to Italian antipasti, to the meze of further east. We don’t skate around a single place, either – we have Corsica in the French chapter, Majorca in the Spanish, Venice and Sicily alike under Italy as well as a strong look at the mainland offerings. It all shows that there is no one way of doing things in the Med, but little to find disagreeable.

I didn’t take quite as much from this as I thought, perhaps, but I don’t really feel like chasing an octopus around, nor getting everything out for pastries. An Italian shrimp and tomato concoction is much more my thing. A paprika butter topping and yoghurt base for a poached egg seems an unusual Turkish snack.

The guides to the regions tell you the native approach – whether these small courses and mini-plates are to be dumped on us all asunder and we make our own tasting menu out of them, or whether we have one or two to open the appetite (and reassure the guest we know what we’re doing) en route to something larger. The final section of suggested menus lets us feel comforted if we like the prescribed route, but these definitive comfort foods should surely be used and scoffed as and when we like. Cribbed from other books and from fieldwork (ie holidays) alike, this seemed to be a very authentic, varied and engaging chance to get to the platters that matter.

Always fun to try new recipies. There we're lots i want to try. Reccomend it if you like or a are intersted in mediterranean food.

This is a great cookbook for begging cooks/ collectors but I found myself wanting more exciting/varied recipes. While they all looked and sounded delicious I found it to be a very basic collection.

Mediterranean Small Plates is an approachable guide to Mediterranean style entertaining. The photos, recipes, and ingredients are all generally accessible to all - the perfect resource for those who love to entertain.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - this book is out now!

I love making small plates and tapas for friends and families and Mediterranean Small Plates allowed me to do two dinners that were healthier and better than what I've done before. Recipes are easy and using such fresh ingredients was amazing. I've already purchased two copies for friends for Christmas.

Small plates is a really nice way of eating and this book gives a lot of great ideas. The recipes are varied and interesting. They are organised by region, which takes the reader on a pleasant trip around the Mediterranean. The recipes are well explained and the book is full of information. It was a pity that the first pages of the book are so negative and cliché about the American way of eating and so naively positive about the Mediterranean way. It somehow detracted from the heart of the topic.

Some of my favorite meals come from Mediterranean cuisine. They're usually light yet filling, and bursting with flavors that are meant to enhance the ingredients, not disguise them. You're given the energy your body needs from this source of fuel, while not being weighed down with excessive amounts of carbs or fats or sugar. I also love small plate options, as variety is the spice of life, and that applies to food as well. It's always fun and interesting to try a little bit of everything.

This book is a combination of the best of both worlds, with beautiful pictures and easy to follow recipes. The meals in this book are perfect for a regular dinner setting, a dinner party, or a potluck. It provides plenty of unique ideas if you're tired of having the same thing over and over for dinner, or perhaps wanting to bring something other than the same old (tried and true, but routine) pasta salad or chip dip to the barbecue. I think this is a great recipe book for summer, as the meals provide the best of the summer feelings. They're light, they're yummy, and they're energizing.