The Tunisia Cookbook: Healthy Red Cuisine from Carthage to Kairouan

This comprehensive guide to the great range of Tunisia’s traditional dishes is a feast for the senses. But also so much more - a festival of this ancient nation’s remarkable heritage.

The culinary traditions we celebrate in Tunisia today are the flowering of a mature culture that has flourished and deepened over centuries. It explores the many levels at which diet contributes to the community.

The Olive tree, which lies at the heart of Mediterranean cooking, is used comprehensively - its roots, trunk, branches, twigs, leaves and fruit are all used for the benefit of healthy living. The wood is turned into craft items and the foliage is often used for medicinal purposes, while the fruit appears as appetizers or in the form of oil for cooking and cosmetics. Without roots and trunks a tree cannot grow leaves and without supportive dietary roots societies, too, can wither in the same way.

Includes dual measures.

Hafida Ben Rejeb Latta was born in Kairouan in 1944 and was brought up in the house of her grandfather, the late writer and poet Salah Souissi el Quayrawani. After graduating from L’Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Tunis she worked as secretary to the then Minister of Culture and Information si Chedli Klibi and taught Arabic to Peace Corps volunteers. She went on to marry a British diplomat and left Tunisia to live and teach in Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan, the UAE and many other countries from her English base.

Dr. Simon Poole MBBS DRCOG is a Cambridge-based medical doctor, author, broadcaster and commentator. He is an internationally renowned authority on nutrition and the science and application of the Mediterranean Diet and lifestyle, explaining and celebrating the combination of wonderful ingredients in this beautiful cuisine which can add years to life. He is an expert scientific consultant on extra virgin olive oil.