Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes

Rick Stein’s Mediterranean escape begins in Marseille. He catches the ferry to Bastia, the ancient capital of Corsica, where he is invited to a typical Corsican feast. Here pulenda, a kind of polenta made with chestnut flour, takes pride of place along with figatellu, a strong-tasting local sausage made with offal and cheek from the Corsican black pig and grilled over chestnut wood. He also admires the rough peasant stews and the handmade local cheeses. At Bonifacio, Rick sails across the rough straits to Sardinia, where he visits a small factory that makes corks and samples an especially good spaghetti with cuttlefish ink and a rich tomato sauce.

In Sardinia, Rick watches as the local fishermen catch mullet using methods that date back to Ancient Roman times. He then boards a ferry for Sicily. In Palermo, he finds one of the best pasta dishes he has ever tasted. Rick then rustles up a simple vegetarian pasta with tomatoes, capers and mint using capers from the island of Pantelleria, and pasta alla norma, with aubergines, tomatoes, chilli and ricotta salata cheese from Catania on the east coast of Sicily.

Rick continues his travels in Sicily, enjoying the colours and ambience of Catania’s busy fish market. He then travels to Puglia on Italy’s mainland, where the local dishes have been influenced by centuries of poverty. Rick cooks Peas with onions, parma ham and olive oil, then gives his take on the fennel sausage recipe he tasted at a local restaurant.

Rick departs Italy and makes his way to the Greek island of Corfu, where he attends a family feast. He visits kitchens in restaurants all over the island and learns how to make authentic Greek dishes such as a Greek peasant salad with good quality feta and olives; pastitsio (a beef and macaroni pie with cinnamon, red wine and kefalo cheese) and baked Greek omelette with wild greens and herbs (horta), leeks and feta.

From Corfu, Rick heads to the Spanish island of Mallorca, where he eats what he describes as the most succulent lamb he has ever tasted. He interprets Mallorcan-style cooking with his Chicken with sobrasada, a soft and spreadable Mallorcan sausage made with pork loin and fat, paprika, salt and cayenne pepper. Rick then travels to Barcelona’s La Boqueria market of St Joseph, which he says is the best place to eat Catalan food. With Catalonia in mind, he cooks the local food of salt cod fritters with allioli (a punchy garlic sauce).

In Morocco, Rick enjoys couscous and tucks into the tagines and mint tea found in the bazaars. Rick cooks the Moroccan dish of Kefta mkaouara (a simple dish of onions, tomatoes, cumin, and paprika baked with spicy meatballs and eggs). His Mediterranean travels end in south-eastern Turkey, where he feasts on kebabs. Rick makes the Turkish-style fast food lahmacun, a flatbread that is topped with minced lamb, then rolled up to eat.