After months of indulging in comfort foods, with the warmer weather comes the desire to embrace fresh and fuss-free meals like those found in the Mediterranean. Revolving around fresh fruit and vegetables, seafood and olive oil – with cheese and wine allowed – this is our kind of healthy eating.

Our month-long Mediterranean holiday kicks off in the Greek islands with Rick Stein as your foodie tour guide. Get a taste of the Hellenic Republic with Greek classics, like pastitsio with kefalotiri cheese and Limeni-style grilled octopus, alongside new-age favourites like Greek grape spoon sweets and mastiha honey and lemon spritz.

But first, to the most important meal of the day. Cross over the Aegean Sea for a taste of a true Middle Eastern breakfast. Gather the family around for silverbeet fatteh with sumac, chickpeas and yoghurt, and smashed eggs with babaganoush and tabouli. Swap up the toast for homemade flatbread, from aish baladi to gozleme and lahmacun.

Meanwhile, delicious. food director Phoebe Wood gives us her helpful hints on making harissa – the red hot Tunisian chilli paste – as well as all the dishes that can handle the heat. Learn how to make your own spicy sauce from scratch, and the best places to smother it from honey butter spatchcocks to a beef short rib tagine with caramelised onions.

Feel like some filo? Kirsten Jenkins explores the best in crispy, crunchy, filo pastry dishes. Start with spanakopita and Lebanese lady’s fingers and finish off with galaktoboureko, just don’t forget to clean up the crumbs.

To finish off, go nuts with our almond, cashew, pistachio, and pecan desserts. For a show-stopping end to your Mediterranean feast, you can’t beat our halva, dried apricot and hazelnut meringue cake. Or for a small sweet snack to end your meal, why not try our cashew and semolina ma’amoul or pecan baklava roll.

Take a holiday through the pages of our Travel section. This month, we’ve got stopovers on Greek Island of Corfu, Emilia-Romagna in Italy and Vienna in Austria. If you’re looking for something a bit closer to home, we’ve chased down the very best Spanish tapas plates, right here in Australia.

And just to make our new issue a little bit sweeter, every copy comes with a free 100g block of Lindt Excellence chocolate.

The September issue of delicious. is now on sale.