Summer Mediterranean Recipes + Faves from Foodie Restaurants

 

Off and on with my 20-year hospitality career, I worked behind-the-scenes in catering planning and event execution for Spanish, Italian, and Lebanese restaurants and fine hotels in the Washington, DC area — a top foodie hub. During that time, I picked up many great summer Mediterranean recipes and experimented with my own.

Some of my fondest memories were the large corporate and bridal events where I could get creative with the festive food and elaborate decorations.

From those experiences, I learned to create balanced menus for preferred and customized tastes around the specific seasons and events.

I’ve taste-tested delicious foods, recipes, and dishes from the chefs I worked with who came from around the world.

Some of my favorite summer Mediterranean recipes(great for warm seasons!) that I’ve added my take and twists to, are below:

For summer Mediterranean recipes, these are 3 inspiration summer soups and salads to balance high Pitta and Vata natures, and especially tame Pitta imbalances that are common in the summer.

Lebanese Taverna restaurants – Middle Eastern food 

I planned events for 5 popular Lebanese restaurants that were especially popular, fresh food choices for those with food allergies (gluten, dairy, nuts, meat, etc.). 

One of my favorites is and was the fresh watermelon feta salad that many people love around the world.

I’ve added my own twist:

Watermelon (feta optional) salad.  This is a uber-refreshing salad because of mint added to juicy-ripe diced, summer watermelon, and finish off with a drizzle of good, balanced olive oil. I like Lucini olive oil for drizzling (and Bertolli for cooking).

I’m not a big fan of feta cheese that you often see this salad mixed with and I don’t think it looks appetizing (like cottage cheese).

So if you’re also in that camp or looking for dairy-free plate, then you can leave the cheese out, as feta is not an important ingredient to make this plate’s taste pop and zing!

You could serve with lightly toasted pita chips. I like to buy pita, cut up in wedges, and toast but you can also buy Stacy’s plain pita chips (grocery store popular).

Moving onto the more restaurant-inspired Mediterranean recipes…

La Tasca restaurants – Spanish food

Planning parties and marketing allowed me to experiment with many Spanish foods, summer Mediterranean recipes, and menus.

One of my favorites was a seasonal special, freshly-prepared gazpacho soup served cold.

Gazpacho. This is the blend I like: blended watermelon or cucumber, fresh tomato, cumin, and a drizzle of olive oil and garlic. I like to add fresh cilantro and then salt and pepper. Yum!

I remember ingredients used to always end with “salt and pepper to taste” and somehow that got dropped, maybe ‘cause of all the other great ingredients that we have access to.

S&P are the two that often are the final balancing flavors if you can’t quite put your finger on what’s missing.

I like to use coarser kosher or sea salt for certain dishes (like Brussel sprouts or edamame) and ground black pepper for many soup and green dishes, but for gazpacho, regular table   salt and pepper is good.

Traditionally gazpacho is served with a spongy white, unsalted bread that doesn’t have much taste (like Wonder Bread you would feed the ducks with at a lake).

This also reminds me of the bread served at Tuscan meals and with my favorite Ribollita soup served warm and great for wet and cool days (in early spring, late fall, or winter)… or if you’re feeling Vata and need some comforting balance food.

I prefer a more wholesome and healthy bread, so I would serve with Ezekiel toasted bread with a drizzle of olive oil.

You could also try a gazpacho in a bread bowl (like a sour dough bread bowl they serve at Panera Bread).

Paolo’s Ristorante – Italian food and ciabatta summer Mediterranean recipe

When I worked for the chic, all marble floor Italian restaurant chain, I got in the habit of dipping bread in olive oil with cracked black pepper. The bread was served by a server who came around with black pepper mills who asked if you wanted to have fresh black pepper in your dipping olive oil and on your entree when it was served.

Serving butter with bread before and during the meal was still the American restaurant norm those days when the first restaurant cappuccino machines came out in America (those were exciting times!)

The problem I had with the butter idea, was often the restaurant served the butter chilled in a  ceramic container (especially in finer restaurants as the “proper way” sitting on a bed of ice). It was not easy to spread the butter on the bread so you usually ended up with a square pat of butter on one bite of your bread and ended up adding more until the butter got to room temperature and could spread easier.

Now many American restaurants customarily serve bread with olive oil because of these Mediterranean-influenced restaurants.

Black pepper and salt on the table are optional. Especially with American-Italian restaurants, sometimes they have pepper mills sitting on the table. EVOO is much healthier, and I think tastes better as it melts in your mouth.

From that restaurant experience I also learned to love:

Tomato Mozzarella Basil Salad. This can be a work of art with balsamic vinaigrette dotted around the plate for each bite (like a painting palette…  “a little dab will do you.”

In summer, tomatoes are abundant and if you grow tomatoes, you may not know what to do with all of them. Besides making a sauce, gazpacho, or a summer salad or pasta is perfect. Plum tomatoes are good for most recipes.

I like plum tomatoes (you may have heard of San Marzano tomatoes?) and prefer over beefsteak or heirloom tomatoes common in American home meals.

You can also try with a tastier fresh green tomato popular in the south. For this recipe, any tomatoes will work as long as they are fresh and ripe.

Then on top of the tomatoes, add cut buffalo mozzarella cheese that this recipe can’t do without! Buffalo mozzarella (white color) on its own doesn’t have much of a flavor, but paired with these ingredients is scrumptious.

Finally, add a little fresh basil on top for each bite. In summer, fresh basil is abundant (and you can grow in your herb garden) for this salad. I also like to add pine nuts to the side as dressy accoutrements 😉. If you toast them, be sure to watch them as they can burn quickly. Pine nuts are usually okay with people with nut allergies.

Another option for a full Mediterranean meal experience, is you can serve the salad with my whole wheat ciabatta bread recipe I shared.

Over the pandemic when we were home-bound I had a desire to make my own healthy, fresh bread that could be baked. I wanted to come up with a recipe that wouldn’t be compromised in lower 350 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures (as many breads need high temps well above 400 degrees to get the right doneness).

I settled on a versatile, no-muss, no-fuss recipe good for any meal, soups, and salads.

I’m still testing a sweeter, natural, no-white sugar added breakfast bread that’s good with a homemade jam (my next cooking project 😊).

Good Eats, Buono Apetito, and Bon Appetit!

To get the fancy ciabatta roll design at the top: