Matbucha — slow-cooked tomatoes and peppers with garlic

pareve Israeli and Mediterranean · regular · 120 min, including 35 hands-on

The cooked salad of Moroccan tables: tomatoes, grilled peppers, chilli, garlic and paprika slowly simmered in olive oil to a deep red, glossy mixture, sweet at first with a rounded chilli heat, to spoon onto bread.

Ingredients for two

Method

1. Preheat the oven grill. Halve the peppers, remove the stalks, seeds and membranes, and place skin-side up on a metal baking tray with the whole chilli. Grill about 10 cm below the element for 15–20 minutes, turning the chilli halfway through: the skin should blister and blacken in places. Seal the peppers and chilli in a covered bowl for 10 minutes. Without an oven grill, place the pepper halves and chilli directly over a gas flame for 6–8 minutes, turning with tongs until the skins blacken.
2. When the peppers come out of the oven and are resting in their covered bowl, crush the tomatoes with their juices by hand in a mixing bowl. Heat 35 g oil in a 28 cm heavy-based sauté pan over a medium-low heat. Add the sliced garlic, 5 cloves, and stir for 1–2 minutes, until fragrant and just beginning to turn golden, without browning.
3. Take the pan off the heat for 20 seconds, add the paprika and cumin and stir in the hot oil to release their aromas. Immediately pour in the tomatoes and their juices, add the salt and sugar, then return to a low heat. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for 15–20 minutes while peeling and cutting the peppers, stirring every 5 minutes. The tomatoes should break down and the sauce barely thicken; it should not yet be concentrated or spitting.
4. Meanwhile, peel the peppers and chilli by hand without rinsing, which would wash away their grilled flavour. Keep the juices at the bottom of the bowl. Cut the peppers into short strips 1 cm wide and finely chop the chilli, keeping a few seeds for heat, or none for a mild version. Add the strips, chilli and bowl juices to the pan.
5. Cook gently over a low heat, uncovered, for 40–55 minutes, depending on how thick the mixture already is. Stir every 8–10 minutes and more often towards the end. Judge by the texture rather than the clock: the sauce should lose its excess water, turn deep red and leave a visible trail for a few seconds when a spoon is drawn through it. If it catches before it is soft, lower the heat and add a spoonful of water. Add the crushed garlic clove 10 minutes before the end.
6. Add the remaining 15 g oil and cook for another 5 minutes over a very low heat, stirring often. Stop when the mixture is glossy, with no free liquid, holds in a mound on a spoon and red oil rises around the edges. Taste a cooled spoonful: adjust the salt and, if the tomatoes are still acidic, add another pinch of sugar. Remove from the heat; do not dry it out to the consistency of tomato purée.
7. Leave to cool for 15 minutes, then divide between two small bowls. Serve warm or, better still, cold after a night in the refrigerator, with bread for mopping up. The pepper strips should remain distinct within the very soft tomato mixture, and the garlic should no longer taste raw.

On your plate

Cooking tips

Slow reduction and generous oil develop the flavour: a shorter cooking time would give you only a tomato sauce. Make it the day before so the flavours mingle. It keeps for 5–6 days in a jar in the refrigerator under a thin layer of olive oil; use leftovers in sabich or shakshuka, or with hard-boiled eggs as a kemia. For a summer version, from June to October, replace the tins with 1.2 kg fresh tomatoes, halved and grated flesh-side down on a coarse grater, leaving the skin in your hand. Allow 10 extra minutes of reduction. For a mild version, use ½ chilli with no seeds. This is a starter to share: 1.2 kg vegetables yields about 500 g matbucha.

Equipment : oven with a grill, or gas hob, metal baking tray, tongs, bowl with a lid or a plate to cover it, 28 cm heavy-based sauté pan, wooden spoon

Matbucha from Moroccan Jewish and Israeli tables: a cooked salad of tomatoes, grilled peppers and garlic.