كسكسي
Couscous
Fridays, Sundays, weddings
Steamed semolina under a red sauce of lamb or fish and vegetables. One big plate in the middle, and everybody eats from their own side.
الماكلة
Makla, Tunisian food as it is eaten at home
Twelve dishes, with bread where bread is the spoon. Each one links to a recipe written by Tunisians.
بريك
Brik
Every Ramadan evening
Paper-thin malsouka folded around an egg, tuna, parsley and capers, then fried. Eaten with your hands, and the yolk always runs down your wrist.
عجّة
Ojja
Any day, in ten minutes
Tomatoes, peppers, garlic and harissa, eggs cooked right in the sauce, often merguez. The bread is the only spoon.
سلاطة مشوية
Slata mechouia
On every table in summer
Peppers and tomatoes grilled until black, peeled and chopped with garlic and caraway; olive oil, tuna, egg and olives on top.
فريكاسي
Fricassé
From the street, any hour
A small fried roll, split and filled with tuna, potato, egg, olives and harissa. One is never enough.
شربة فريك
Chorba frik
Ramadan, every night
Lamb, tomato and green cracked wheat. The soup that opens the meal after the fast, with a date and a squeeze of lemon.
مقرونة
Makrouna
Any weekday lunch
Pasta in a red sauce with harissa and meat. The most ordinary lunch in the country, and the one you miss first.
كسكروت
Kaskrout
Lunch at school, at work, on the road
A whole baguette with harissa, mechouia, tuna, egg, potato and olives. The lunch of students and workers, pressed closed with one hand.
لوبيا
Loubia
Winter mornings and evenings
White beans in a red sauce with harissa and cumin, a thread of olive oil on top, and a loaf of bread to clean the bowl.
كفتاجي
Kafteji
From a small shop with a big knife
Fried potato, pumpkin, peppers and tomato, chopped together with a fried egg and harissa until it is one loud, spicy plate.
ملوخية
Mloukhia
Ras el Am, and any Sunday
Ground jute leaves cooked for hours in olive oil with beef, until almost black. No spoon: bread and your hand.
لبلابي
Lablabi
Winter, late at night
Chickpeas in a hot broth over torn bread, an egg, harissa, cumin, capers and olive oil. You tear the bread yourself.
Recipes from Our Tunisian Table, by two cousins born in Tunisia. The drawings were made for this page.