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The Foods of North Africa

As a food writer who has written and studied the national cuisines surrounding the Mediterranean for more than 40 years, I approach the cooking of the region in terms of its key flavors and tastes—the tang of its lemons and pomegranates; the soft textures of its dates and capers; the striking and unexpected combinations of its vegetables and fruits; its olives and olive oil—because these are among the things that Mediterranean food is all about.

The foods of northern Africa are based on these and other flavors inherent to that region. But there is no such thing as northern African cuisine. The cooking of each of these countries—Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt—has it own distinct personality.

A World-Class Cuisine
To develop a great cuisine, a nation must have four attributes—an abundance of fine ingredients, a variety of cultural influences, a great civilization and the existence of a refined palace life.

Morocco is blessed with all four of those attributes. Situated only a few miles from the straits of Europe, with a Mediterranean coast, an Atlantic Coast, five mountain ranges and an encompassing desert, Morocco has a wealth of raw ingredients, including: the mint, olives and quinces of Meknes; the oranges and lemons of Fez and Agadir; the pomegranates of Marrakesh; the almonds, lamb and za’atar of the Souss; the dates of Erfoud; and the spices that for thousands of years have been brought to this country. There are four Moroccan dishes that are world-class—bisteeya, mechoui, djej emsmel and couscous. Bisteeya is the most sophisticated and elaborate Moroccan dish, a combination of incredibly tasty flavors. It is a huge pie of the thinnest, flakiest pastry, filled with three layers—spicy pieces of pigeon or chicken, lemony eggs cooked in a savory onion sauce and toasted, sweetened almonds.

The Food of Tunisia
Tunisia has a cuisine so entirely its own that it will never be mistaken for the cooking of its neighbors. Tunisian cuisine is very healthy with a strong emphasis on grains, fresh fruits, fish and vegetables. And as a base for cooking—limpid, luscious olive oil. It is decidedly different from the sophisticated, luxurious palace cookery of Morocco and the humbler, simpler cuisines of Egypt and Algeria.

The original Tunisians were Berbers, known for simple good cooking. Over the centuries numerous other culinary forces were brought to bear on this land: Phoenician, Roman, Arab, Moorish, Turkish, Italian and French—bringing recipes and techniques that melded into a strong vivid, colorful and extremely tasty national cuisine.

The first major theme is its heat, a spicy pepperiness. Ever since hot red peppers were introduced to the Mediterranean, Tunisians have used them more than any other country. Fiery peppers play a role in many dishes, usually in the form of the famous harissa paste, a mixture of sun-dried peppers pounded with spices and garlic and packed into jars under a coating of oil. This thick, red, fiery sauce is a pillar of the Tunisian kitchen.

In Tunisian home cooking, many soups, stews and sauces begin the same way: The cook stirs some tomato paste into a spoonful of hot olive oil; when the paste turns glossy and gives off a good aroma, some harissa, diluted with water and stirred until smooth, is added to the pot, along with the vegetables, liquid, herbs and spices. This method not only tames the harissa, but creates a creamier sauce.

The second major theme is the sweeping use of olive oil as a cooking medium through North Africa. On the highways of Tunisia’s coastal plane one drives through great orchards containing millions of olive trees, producing superb fruit and oil. Tunisians do not have as many recipes as Moroccans for cooking olives. But one of the most interesting olive dishes I have ever tasted was in Tunisia; a highly aromatic ragout of stuffed olives—humble, piquant, complex, offbeat and delicious.

A Love of Vegetables
A third theme, and one that Tunisians share with Moroccans, Egyptians and Algerians, is a love of vegetables, particularly tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, pumpkins and edible wild greens—all deliciously perfumed by the sun and reduced to a thick purée that is served as a salad or used to enrich a meat or chicken dish called a tagine.

Moroccan tagines are stews of meat, poultry or fish smothered with one or two vegetables or fruits (sometimes reduced), and cooked in an earthenware dish with a conical cover. Djej Emshmel is one of the four versions of Moroccan chicken, lemon and olive tagine, in which the chicken is slowly simmered with luscious olives and tart preserved lemons in a sauce seasoned with saffron, cumin, ginger and paprika.

Tunisian tagines are different. Tunisian cooks, when speaking of tagines, will refer to them having a “beginning, a “middle and an “end. The “beginning is usually a mini-stew of veal or lamb cut into small pieces and cooked with onions and spices such as dried rosebuds and cinnamon or a robust combination of ground coriander and caraway. Then something starchy is added to thicken the juices---white beans, chick peas or cubed potatoes.

The “middle part is the enrichment of the stew with cheese and eggs. The “end is the final baking in a deep pie dish either on the stove or in the oven until both top and bottom are crisply cooked and the eggs are just set, somewhat like an Italian frittata.

The Land of the Pharoahs
Sitting at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe, Egypt has a culinary tradition that combines cuisines from many countries. Its food is quite different from that of Morocco and Tunisia, more similar to the food of the Middle East.

Egypt’s national dish is Ful Mudammas. Fava beans are slowly cooked and mixed with a variety of spices and vegetables, including cumin, garlic, tomatoes, onions and carrots. It is eaten as a stew for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Chick peas and fava beans are also the basis for tahini and hummus, often spiced with a strong dose of garlic. Shelf-stable hummus is among the specialty food products being exported from Egypt.

Daily Bread
In North Africa, bread is eaten daily. It is sacred and is treated with respect. The round, heavy-textured flatbread common in Morocco and Tunisia is different from the Arab pita. It is made with a combination of semolina and hard wheat flour. The distinctive aroma comes from cooking the bread over coals, dried olive wood or grape vines. In Egypt, bread is served alongside hummus, babaganoush and an abundance of other spreads and dips.

Tunisians have their own version of Middle Eastern mezzes, a grouping of vibrant tasting salads that are often highly spiced. Aside from the usual bowl of nuts, olives and thin slices of mullet caviar, you will typically find little plates of spiced octopus, squid and shrimp; shredded Romaine, purslane or endive; crushed carrots, pumpkins or zucchini, each blended separately with hot pepper, mixed spices, lemon juice and oil; mixed pickled garden vegetables such as cauliflower, radishes, turnips and carrots, cut into extra-thin slices; or fennel, turnips and radishes, some studded with crushed hot peppers, others garnished with sliced green olives or slivered leaves of celery, mint or radish.

The most distinctive of the cooked salads is mechouia, which means “grilled: a mildly hot, spicy salad of roasted peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic, often accompanying couscous, other salads and slices of country-style bread. Briks are Tunisia's most popular hot appetizers. It is the Tunisian snack par excellance—a delicious pastry triangle stuffed in innumerable ways, eaten any time of the day, bought out on the street or the beach, or served with a nourishing soup during the month of ramadan.

The delicate, onion-skin, crisp pastry leaves are made by kneading semolina flour and water until enormous elasticity develops and then systematically tapping pieces of this dough onto a heated pan, leaving slightly overlapping rounds to cook only on one side. The pastry is called malsouqua, which means “to adhere in Arabic. The same pastry is made in Morocco, where it is called warka and means “a leaf. It is exactly the same as the Algerian dioul and is surprisingly close to Chinese spring roll skins.

The Tunisian bread shaskoukhet and the Moroccan trid are made in the same way. This bread is prepared during the holy month of ramadan. In Morocco it is said to be the prophet Mohammed’s favorite dish. The bread is torn into small pieces and piled into a cone shape. The cook then pours a paprika-scented chicken stew around it. In Morocco, pieces of chicken are layered in the torn leaves.

Couscous Every Other Day
Couscous is probably the most famous dish of northern Africa. It has been called the national dish of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. An average family eats it approximately three times a week.

The couscous concept is simple yet brilliant. Take a container with a perforated bottom, fill it with semolina-based pellets and place it above a bubbling stew. The steam from the stew will swell the grains and flavor them with its vapors. When served together—the couscous and the stew—the result is extraordinary.

The Tunisians have developed a number of ways of making couscous with fish—a particularly fine one prepared in Djerba is made in an unusual three-tiered steamer. On the middle tier are slices of bluefish embedded in a mixture of chopped mint, parsley, Swiss chard and fennel leaves and steamed over a cinnamon-and-cumin-scented broth, while the couscous, cooking in solitary splendor on top, absorbs the flavors from the tiers below.

Many modern couscous dishes are spicy, with lots of fiery peppers and a combination of ground coriander, cumin and garlic. Older recipes are mellow and exotic, often made with quince, raisins and a curious blend of dried rosebuds, black pepper and ground cinnamon called bharat. Also popular is a combination of the two recipes.

North Africans, from Morocco to Egypt, often finish a meal with a charming presentation of mint tea embellished with a few floating pinenuts to impart a mildly resinous aroma.

Paula Wolfert is the author of a dozen books on Mediterranean food, including Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco and Mediterranean Grains and Greens.