Molaqu Matbakh

Sidi Bou Said & the Tunisian Coast

Tunisian Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Molaqu Matbakh keeps the recipes of Tunisia the way they were cooked before seed oil ever reached a Mediterranean kitchen: with olive oil pressed from the coast, butter, ghee, and a heavy hand of harissa.

Browse the Recipes Read Our Story
A cobalt blue door in a whitewashed Tunisian coastal alley, framed by potted plants

A blue door on the coast of Tunisia, the color of every kitchen shutter in Sidi Bou Said.

Zeitoun First Olive oil is the base of every pot, not a finishing drizzle.
Samna Over Shortcuts Ghee and butter for pastry and rice, slow-clarified, never margarine.
Never Vegetable Oil No canola, no soybean, no sunflower. Not one recipe on this page.

Six Recipes From the Old Matbakh

Recipes Worth Slowing Down For

Every dish below leans on the same pantry a Tunisian grandmother would recognize: olive oil, garlic, cumin, caraway, and a spoon of harissa. Choose a tab to open the full recipe.

Tunisian lablabi chickpea soup served in a blue ceramic bowl

Soup

Lablabi (Tunisian Chickpea Soup)

A working port's breakfast turned national comfort dish: chickpeas simmered in a cumin broth, ladled over torn day-old bread, and finished with a soft egg and a spoon of harissa stirred to taste.

  • Time 45 minutes
  • Serves 4
  • Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked chickpeas, with 3 cups of their broth
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground caraway
  • 2 tbsp harissa paste, plus extra to serve
  • 4 thick slices stale country bread, torn
  • 4 eggs, softly poached
  • 1 lemon, quartered
  • Coarse salt, black pepper, chopped parsley

Method

  1. Warm the olive oil in a wide pot and soften the garlic for one minute, until fragrant but not browned.
  2. Stir in the cumin and caraway and toast for thirty seconds before adding the chickpeas and their broth.
  3. Whisk one tablespoon of harissa into the broth, then simmer uncovered for fifteen minutes so the flavors settle.
  4. Divide the torn bread between four bowls and ladle the hot chickpeas and broth directly over it.
  5. Set a poached egg on top of each bowl and finish with a drizzle of olive oil and a small spoon of harissa.
  6. Serve with lemon wedges, extra harissa on the side, and parsley scattered over the top.
Tunisian couscous with lamb and seven vegetables mounded on a serving plate

Meat

Couscous bil Khodra (Lamb and Seven Vegetables)

The Friday table centerpiece: lamb braised with tomato and harissa until it falls apart, a garden of root vegetables simmered in the same broth, and hand-steamed semolina to catch every drop.

  • Time 2 hours
  • Serves 6
  • Difficulty Medium

Ingredients

  • 2 lb lamb shoulder, cut into pieces
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tbsp harissa
  • 1 tsp ground caraway, 1 cinnamon stick
  • 2 carrots and 2 turnips, halved
  • 1 small pumpkin wedge and 2 zucchini
  • 1 cup cooked chickpeas
  • 3 cups medium semolina couscous, salt

Method

  1. Brown the lamb in olive oil in the base of a couscoussier or heavy pot, then add the onion and cook until soft.
  2. Stir in tomato paste, harissa, caraway, and the cinnamon stick, then cover with water and simmer for forty minutes.
  3. Add the carrots and turnips and simmer thirty minutes more, until the lamb is nearly tender.
  4. Rub the couscous with a little olive oil and steam it uncovered over the simmering broth for twenty minutes.
  5. Add the pumpkin, zucchini, and chickpeas to the broth for the final fifteen minutes of cooking.
  6. Fluff the steamed couscous with a knob of butter, mound it on a large platter, and arrange the lamb and vegetables on top.
  7. Ladle broth over the couscous just before serving and pass extra harissa at the table.
Golden fried Tunisian brik pastry served with a lemon wedge

Pastry

Brik à l'Oeuf (Crisp Tuna and Egg Pastry)

Paper-thin malsouka pastry folded around tuna, capers, and a whole raw egg, then fried until the outside shatters and the yolk stays soft inside. Eaten hot, with your hands, over a plate to catch the drips.

  • Time 30 minutes
  • Serves 4
  • Difficulty Medium

Ingredients

  • 4 sheets malsouka or thin spring roll pastry
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 small can tuna, drained and flaked
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp capers, chopped
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley
  • 1 tsp harissa
  • Olive oil, for frying
  • Salt and black pepper
  • Lemon wedges, to serve

Method

  1. Mix the tuna, onion, capers, parsley, and harissa in a small bowl and season well.
  2. Lay one pastry sheet flat and spoon a quarter of the tuna mixture onto the lower half.
  3. Crack an egg directly on top of the tuna, keeping the yolk whole.
  4. Fold the pastry into a half-moon, pressing the edges firmly to seal in the egg completely.
  5. Heat a generous layer of olive oil in a wide pan until shimmering.
  6. Slide the brik in carefully and fry for about ninety seconds per side, until deep golden and the yolk still gives.
  7. Drain briefly on paper and serve immediately with lemon, before the pastry loses its crackle.
Tunisian chakchouka with peppers, tomato and egg in a skillet

Vegetable

Chakchouka (Pepper, Tomato and Egg Skillet)

A market-stall skillet of green and red peppers stewed down with ripe tomatoes and harissa until jammy, then finished with eggs poached right in the sauce. Served straight from the pan with bread for scooping.

  • Time 35 minutes
  • Serves 4
  • Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 green bell peppers, sliced
  • 1 red bell pepper, sliced
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 3 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tsp harissa, 1/2 tsp ground caraway
  • 4 eggs
  • Salt, parsley, crusty bread to serve

Method

  1. Warm the olive oil in a wide skillet and cook the peppers and onion over medium heat for ten minutes, until soft.
  2. Add the garlic and cook for one minute more, until fragrant.
  3. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, harissa, and caraway, and simmer uncovered for fifteen minutes until thick.
  4. Season with salt and taste, adjusting the harissa to how much heat you want.
  5. Make four small wells in the sauce with the back of a spoon and crack an egg into each one.
  6. Cover the pan and cook for four to five minutes, until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft.
  7. Scatter with parsley and bring the skillet straight to the table with warm bread.
Whole grilled sea bream with lemon, a Tunisian coastal fish dish

Fish

Grilled Sea Bream with Chermoula

A whole fish rubbed inside and out with a bright, garlicky chermoula, then charred over coals until the skin blisters. The marinade doubles as the sauce, spooned back over the fish at the table.

  • Time 40 minutes, plus 1 hour to marinate
  • Serves 4
  • Difficulty Medium

Ingredients

  • 2 whole sea bream, cleaned and scaled
  • 1/3 cup olive oil, plus extra for the grill
  • 5 garlic cloves
  • 1/2 cup cilantro leaves
  • 1/2 cup parsley leaves
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1 tbsp sweet paprika
  • 1 tsp harissa
  • Juice of 2 lemons
  • Coarse salt

Method

  1. Blend the garlic, cilantro, parsley, cumin, paprika, harissa, lemon juice, and olive oil into a loose paste.
  2. Score each fish two or three times on both sides and season the cavity with salt.
  3. Rub the chermoula generously over and inside the fish, reserving a few spoonfuls for serving.
  4. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
  5. Brush the grill grate with olive oil and heat until hot before laying the fish down.
  6. Grill for about six minutes per side, turning once, until the skin is charred and the flesh flakes easily.
  7. Spoon the reserved chermoula over the fish and serve with lemon wedges.
Tunisian makroudh semolina and date pastries on a plate

Dessert

Makroudh (Semolina and Date Pastry)

Diamond-cut semolina pastries filled with a soft date paste, fried until the outside turns golden, then dipped warm into honey syrup. The wild card of the Tunisian table, made for coffee and guests.

  • Time 1 hour
  • Serves Makes about 20 pieces
  • Difficulty Medium

Ingredients

  • 3 cups fine semolina
  • 1/2 cup melted butter or ghee
  • 1 tsp orange blossom water
  • Warm water, as needed
  • 1 1/2 cups pitted dates, softened
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • Olive oil or ghee, for frying
  • 1 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup water, for the syrup
  • Sesame seeds, for finishing

Method

  1. Rub the melted butter into the semolina until it feels like wet sand, then work in the orange blossom water and enough warm water to form a soft dough. Rest it for twenty minutes.
  2. Mash the softened dates with the cinnamon into a smooth, thick paste.
  3. Roll the dough into a log, flatten it, and spread the date paste down the center, then fold the dough over to enclose it.
  4. Press the log gently flat and cut it on the diagonal into small diamonds.
  5. Warm the honey with the water in a small pan until it thins into a syrup, then keep it warm over low heat.
  6. Fry the diamonds in olive oil or ghee over medium heat, turning once, until golden on both sides.
  7. Dip the warm pastries into the honey syrup, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and let them cool on a rack before serving.
A Tunisian kitchen is judged first by its olive oil, and only after that by the cook.

Molaqu Matbakh began as a private notebook of recipes gathered from coastal kitchens, tested and re-tested until the measurements finally matched the memory of the dish. We publish them here as they were cooked long before seed oil arrived on Mediterranean shelves.

Every recipe on this page uses olive oil, butter, ghee, or nothing more than a hot dry pan. No shortcuts, no jug of vegetable oil standing in for the real thing. If a dish traditionally called for deep frying, it is fried in olive oil, the way a Tunisian household would still do it today.

We are a small editorial kitchen, not a restaurant or a shop. There is nothing to order here, only recipes to cook at home.