Mediterranean Women Stay Slim, Too: Eating to Be Sexy, Fit, and Fabulous! (61 page)

2 large beets, roasted in a 400°F oven

Alaskan or Copper River

for 30 minutes, then peeled and

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

diced small

2 pints baby beet greens

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1.
Cut just the very outer zest from two of the oranges and set it aside. Squeeze the juice from the two peeled oranges and set that aside.

2.
In a medium saucepan, bring the sugar and 1 cup water to a boil over high heat. Add the orange zest and cook 10–15 minutes.

3.
Preheat the oven to 250°F. Pour the sugar water with orange zest onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Turn off the oven and put it in the oven to dry. This takes about 2 hours
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if you have a pilot light, but ovens vary, so it could take up to 4

hours. The sugar water should be dry, not pliable, but not browned. When the mixture has dried, puree it to a fine dust in a spice grinder or blender. Set aside.

4.
Place the shallots in a bowl with 1 tablespoon diced beets, the reserved orange juice, a pinch of the orange dust, the vinegar, salt, and pepper. Let it sit 10–15 minutes, then whisk in the orange oil. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Set the vinaigrette aside.

5.
Put the butter and remaining 3 tablespoons water in a saucepan, and add the remaining beets. Heat over medium-high until the beets are glazed, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

6.
Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over high heat and add the olive oil. Season the salmon with salt, pepper, and orange dust. Sear in the hot olive oil, caramelizing on all sides, about 5 minutes.

7.
Peel and slice the remaining orange and arrange the slices on a platter. Spoon the glazed beets onto one side of the platter and place the seared salmon beside them.

8.
Toss the baby beet greens in the vinaigrette and pile on top of the salmon and beets. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the platter. Serve warm.

What’s Good for Your Heart

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Crab with Charred Heirloom Tomatoes

and Arugula

S e r v e s 4

√This salad combines lycopene-rich tomatoes and nutrient-dense arugula with fresh crab for a lighthearted lunch.

1 pound Maine Jonah crabmeat (or

Salt and pepper to taste

use a good-quality canned

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

crabmeat if you can’t get fresh)

2 tablespoons virgin or refined olive oil

1 bunch scallions (about 5 scallions),

1 pound Heirloom tomatoes (or any

white and green parts, chopped

fresh vine-ripened tomatoes)

1 jalapeño, cored, seeded, and minced

1 bunch arugula

(leave some seeds for spicier taste)

1.
In a medium bowl, combine the crabmeat, scallions, jalapeños, salt, and pepper. Add the extra-virgin olive oil and stir. Set aside.

2.
Heat a cast iron or other heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the virgin or refined olive oil to the skillet and let it smoke.

3.
Meanwhile, slice the tomatoes into 1-inch-thick slices, and season with salt and pepper.

4.
Sear each tomato in the hot oil, being careful not to char too much. Remove the tomatoes from the skillet and chop them.

5.
Divide the arugula between four salad plates, setting aside a little for garnishing. Place a spoonful of crab salad onto each pile of arugula, then top with the charred tomatoes and garnish with additional arugula. Serve immediately.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

S e r v e s 6

√This is like a strawberry-rhubarb pie without the crust. It is sweet, tart, and so delicious that it will do your heart good to eat it for dessert when strawberries and rhubarb are in season in late spring. Optionally, add two sprigs of fresh lemon verbena or lemon balm to the pot after it comes to a boil for a fragrant variation.

1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and

cut into quarters

scraped

3 stalks rhubarb, chopped

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon

2 cups sugar

juice

1.
Place all the ingredients in a stainless steel or nonstick pot (not aluminum or cast iron) and place over medium-high heat.

2.
Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, then turn down to a simmer and cook just until the rhubarb begins to break down, about 15 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean. Serve warm or chilled.

What I’d like you to take away from this chapter is simple: Keep your heart healthy by moving a lot, loving a lot, and eating heart-protective foods such as fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, and olive oil. And don’t forget to keep your heart open to others.

Love is the best exercise of all for that beautiful heart beating inside you.

What’s Good for Your Heart

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q

13

Nothing New Under the Sun

If you lived in the Mediterranean in some little town along the coastline, you would probably spend much of your day outside.

You would move a lot, perhaps garden a lot, perhaps swim or climb or run. You would walk to the market, and you would walk home with your basket of food. You would cook, clean, and work.

Maybe you would care for children or spend time helping friends with their work. Sometimes you would sit together with friends or family and enjoy a meal or a cup of coffee. And then you would go back to work. Chances are, you would be very healthy.

This simple Mediterranean lifestyle hasn’t changed all that much over the years. You can still find little towns with one store and one tiny gathering spot for food and drink. “What do people do all day?” a friend of mine asked on a recent trip to Italy as she walked through a tiny village that didn’t have television, Internet service, malls or convenience stores, movie theaters, or even very many cars. But people
were
doing things—they were walk-

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ing and talking, gathering to eat together, cooking and cleaning, and spending a lot of time outside simply being where they were, their minds happily present. What a concept. Everyone seemed strong, healthy, and very relaxed.

Much of the Mediterranean way boils down to one concept: simplicity. Sometimes the old ways are the best ways. Simplicity in the form of simple food, simple exercise, and a simple life with less pressure and more basic human interaction is the hall-mark of the Mediterranean way.

The Greek word for “diet” is
diata,
but a direct translation doesn’t refer to mere calorie intake. It can more accurately be translated as “lifestyle.” The Mediterranean “diet” isn’t just an eating plan of so many calories and so much fat per day. It is a lifestyle that touches everything you do—how much physical activity you get, how strong your social connections are, how much time you take to enjoy the pleasures of life, and yes, also what you eat.

Before 1960, the people of the Mediterranean enjoyed the lowest heart disease and cancer rates and the greatest longevity of almost anywhere in the world, but then American influences began to change people’s habits. So let’s look back at how life was in the 1950s in the Mediterranean, when Americans were eating their three square meals of meat and potatoes each day . . . and dying young of heart attacks. While we obviously can’t travel back in a time machine, fortunately we can get a glimpse of the old ways by looking at some of the smaller rural communities in the Mediterranean, which have remained largely unchanged for decades.

√ Life Then and Now

When Price and I were bicycling all over Sicily, we felt as if we had gone back in that very time machine. Life was so much different there, the energy of the place a radical change from the
Nothing New Under the Sun

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energy in America, or really any larger city. It’s easy to envision how life has long been for many of these people by watching them today as they balance their hard physical work with the leisure activities they so treasure, as they maintain their close-knit communities and families, and as they prepare and enjoy food together.

Who can ever be alone for a moment in Italy?

Every stone has a voice, every grain of dust seems

instinct with spirit from the Past, every step

recalls some line, some legend of long-neglected

lore.

—Margaret Fuller, writer

On an island such as Sicily, the land space isn’t all that big, so people are automatically pushed closer together. But unlike the impression you get in a large city such as New York, people seem to enjoy this closeness. They talk freely and openly, they look each other in the eye, and they depend on each other.

In big cities, I’ve noticed that the closer people physically get to each other, the more they withdraw emotionally from each other. People stay inside on their computers where they don’t have to interact with the crowds. When women walk down the street, their eyes are straight ahead to avoid eye contact. This isn’t just American stubbornness—it can be a matter of safety.

In rural Mediterranean communities, life is much different.

People greet each other with a
“Buon giorno”
or
“Ciao!”
People help each other, and many women live with several generations of their family in one home. People take over family businesses from their parents. Children grow up knowing their grandparents. Friends stay together for years. Women spend time with other women. Even when they spend time alone, it is with pleasure and inner peace.

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Part of this has to do with the fact that many women in the Mediterranean stay put. Their birthplace becomes a part of who they know themselves to be. It helps to ground them with a sense of self and a sense of community.

If you live in a smaller town, you may be thinking this way of life doesn’t seem so out of reach. Where I live in Maine, life is quite similar to what I saw in Sicily. People often live here for their entire lives, stay in close touch with family and friends, and maintain a slower pace of life. My point is that you don’t have to go to the Mediterranean or be from the Mediterranean to achieve a greater balance between work and leisure. And you don’t have to spend your entire life in your hometown to feel connected to the place in which you live. You just have to make a conscious effort to open yourself to your community, your neighbors, even your own climate. Let it become a part of who you are even if you have only lived there a short while.

If you do live in a big city, you don’t have to get sucked into a high-stress, complicated lifestyle, either. You may be very busy, but you can still slow down for meals and savor every bite. You can slow down in your thinking for at least a little while every day and breathe. You can sit in an outdoor cafe and enjoy a cup of coffee before you continue with your busy day.

Whenever you eat or drink anything at all, you can stop doing everything else. Just enjoy the moment.

Try sitting in a cafe for a while and see how it goes. Watch the people, but in your own body, stop! Can you stand it? Do you want to pull out your laptop and e-mail someone? Are your fingers itching to dial a friend on your cell phone? Do you feel compelled to read a magazine? Or can you just sip that coffee or tea or water with lemon and do only that? Remember, only habit keeps you from being present.

There are many ways to capture the Mediterranean spirit of simplicity. I’m not asking you to forego the pleasures and luxuries
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that you enjoy.
Au contraire!
I’m asking you to savor what matters.

You can spend more time with friends, stay in closer touch with your family, volunteer in your community, or rent a plot in a community garden. You can stop constantly buying things for entertainment and start spending more time outside. You can do one thing at a time. Just set aside a little time for simplicity each day.

Italians are never punctual; the cafe, the conve-

nient place to wait, absolves them from that.

There is no question of hanging about, no looking

lost and unwanted or even disreputable, as there

is in hotel lobbies or the foyers of restaurants.

One just sits and enjoys the scene, and waits.

—Shirley Hazzard, writer

√ Move It or Lose It

About that walking I keep mentioning—this is another distinct difference between the lifestyles of the typical American woman and the typical woman living along the Mediterranean Sea: exercise. Life in the Mediterranean, particularly a few decades ago, was full of physical labor. Women spent a lot of time outside, working, moving, lifting, walking. They had gardens to tend, animals to feed, food to harvest. When they went to the market or to visit a friend, they walked or bicycled. Children played outside, never inside in front of a television with a video game controller in hand.

In the United States, city dwellers often walk a lot. But rural and suburban dwellers usually drive everywhere—to the store, to the neighbor’s house, even to their own mailboxes! Getting outside and walking or bicycling to the places you need to go is quintessentially Mediterranean. When you walk, you get full access to the sunshine, fresh air, and direct experience of your
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own community. This is a natural and integral part of Mediterranean life, and it can be a natural part of your life, too. Just put down your car keys and get out there.