Easy and delicious pasta recipe

The other day I made a scrumptious pasta dish with boneless lamb and vegetables. It was quite an easy "recipe" (I find it hard to call a bunch ingredients thrown together a recipe though), but it was delicious! Since we had a lot of tomatoes that I wanted to use, I thought pasta would hit the spot. 

Lamb meat, cut into small pieces, about one kg 

Around 8 large tomatoes and 3 large onions

Some carrots and bell peppers, depending on how vegetable-y you want the meal. You can use other veges but this is what I had on hand and what I thought would suit this meal best

Seasonings used: sage, parsley, basil, oregano (all dried), black pepper, cumin, paprika, garlic, salt, olive oil 

2 heaped spoons of tomato paste 

About half a cup of water 

Chop the onions in whatever size you wish, I diced them. Then saute and in the meantime chop your tomatoes. Now add the seasonings to your onions, saute for some minute or so and then add the meat, keep sauteeing for a few minutes. Now add the tomato past tomatoes and water, stirr well, then let it simmer on a low flame. Now peel and dice your carrots and slice the bell peppers. Stirr every so often. When the sauce is simmering for about half an hour, add the carrots. Then after half an hour or so, add the bell peppers. My sauce simmered for almost an hour and a half. It depends on how young the lamb is, so it might need more or less cooking time. By the end my sauce had the perfect consistency, not too thick but not runny either. If you like olive oil as much ad I do, you can add some more olive oil a few minutes before turning off the heat. 

Now cook your pasta - I used fussili/rotini. I used 1.5 package (750 grams) because I was cooking for our neighbours too. It was exactly the right amount, with some leftover sauce, so I could have used one kg exactly to use up all that sauce (but that didn't fit in the pan I was using... 😆🫣) When the pasta is done, drain and mix with the sauce and serve. 

I have no idea what this is called because it's really some ingredients that I had on hand and that I threw together. But apparently it comes close to what some people would call goulash. My husband liked it that much that he was happy to have some leftover sauce and he's already planning how to have the leftovers, and my children asked if I could make this again! I love it when I try something new and everyone loved the dish. 

Makarouna bel salsa - Tunisian pasta recipe

Tunisians LOVE pasta. It's their main staple food (along with bread), even more so than couscous. According to the statistics, Tunisia is the second largest pasta consuming country in the world, right after Italy. It's the Sicilians that originally brought pasta here and people have been eating it in large amounts ever since.

It's interesting that people don't associate pasta with north African cuisine when it's consumed that much (Libyans also love their pasta). Perhaps that's the interesting thing about north African cuisine anyway- it's not always what you'd expect, being an interesting mix of indigenous (Amazigh), Turkish/middle eastern, Italian and, due to the colonization, French foods. The pasta that people usually eat here does have a different flavour profile when compared to its Italian counterpart. It really does have that typical "north African taste" (a bit of a vague explanation, I really don't know how else to put it!). There are various pasta dishes that people eat here, but makarouna bel salsa ("pasta with sauce", translated) is the one that's eaten most.

What I also like about the pasta here is that 1) it's of good quality- legally, only 100% semolina based pasta is allowed to be sold, unless it's wholegrain pasta so no plain white flour pasta can be found here. And 2), it's about the cheapest food imaginable, being heavily subsidized to make it affordable for everyone (just to compare, rice is six times as expensive as pasta here). And since pasta is so versatile, you don't get bored quickly. It's for sure a staple in our house.

To make this typical Tunisian pasta dish, you'll need: 

Meat or fish of your choice (I mainly use chicken), tomato paste, Tunisian spice mixture, turmeric, salt, harissa or any other hot pepper condiment or even ground hot peppers, an onion (or just an onion peel), garlic, oil, some bay leaves, a few potatoes and hot peppers (optional). 

First off, mix the tomato paste with the seasonings, salt, and water. I use about 400 grams of tomato paste and 3-4 cups of water (you may want to add more water if using red meat). Then add some oil - this dish is usually a bit heavy on oil, as it really  enhances the flavours. I try to be a bit careful but still use some oil, usually a mixture of olive oil and a more neutral tasting oil. Also add the meat and some onion - the onion is for extra flavour so you don't have to add a lot. This is why I mentioned using a peel, since that is usually discarded, but works really good in recipes like these. Let it heat up until it reaches a boiling point and let simmer until the meat is tender. Some people also add in potatoes and green peppers. This seems like an odd combination but it's really delicious! My MIL also added chickpeas to her pasta. It's just a matter of preference. When the sauce isn't thick enough (it shouldn't be as thick as regular pasta sauce but not very runny either), you can let it simmer a bit more. Then boil the pasta of your choice, drain and add the hot sauce to your pasta, letting it sit for a few minutes covered with a lid. This way the pasta absorbes the sauce. Most people here prefer using spaghetti or ditali shapes, but you can use any pasta shape of your choice. When using spaghetti, keep in mind that it's OK for the sauce to be a bit runnier. 

Since there are no vegetables cooked in the sauce, you can add a salad or any other vegetable based side - some people, however, don't (and yes, they're still alive 🤭). I usually serve this with a simple tomato/cucumber/onion salad during the summer. I also like a yogurt based cucumber salad with this dish. And if you want to serve it even more traditional, make sure there's also some crunchy baguette to scoop up the pasta! Yes, carbs with carbs with carbs.

Sa7a! 

Tunisian pasta is usually made with ditalini shape pasta 

 

Pasta vs rice

As some of my readers have noticed, we eat quite a lot of pasta! Pasta, in my opinion, is the frugal cook's best friend. The variety of sauces, protein sources and whatever else you add to this starch are just unlimited. Not to mention the kind of pasta you're using, there are just so many choices! 

Where we live, pasta is insanely cheap, costing a bit less than €0,15 (or $0,16...) a bag. A bag contains 500 grams/1.10 lbs. This is due to government subsidies on certain food items, to keep them available for all people, including the poor. There's also subsidized bread, semolina, milk, and couscous. But for some reason, pasta seems to be the most popular starch of choice- probably because couscous can be time consuming to prepare. There's a history behind the reason of pasta being so popular. Apparently, around 100 years ago, there were many Sicilians living in Tunisia who brought with them various kinds of pasta. And they quickly fell in love with the pasta! Nowasays, pasta is consumed almost as much here as it is in Italy. I must admit that when I first came here, I was overwhelmed by the variety of pasta shapes and sizes. In the Netherlands we usually did our groceries at a budget supermarket chain where they had spaghetti, elbow macaroni and maybe some bigger shapes such as penne or fussili. Here, the pasta aisle is the most elaborated one of the entire supermarket. Not only are there a lot of different shapes, each shape has different sizes as well, suitable to use in different dishes. Overtime, I've learned which shape and size works best for which dish and we know our preferences. There are also some more luxurious pastas that are more expensive, such as cannoli and lasagna, but most of the pastas are cheap. They also go by different names, in some cases. Most shapes have their original Italian name, but some are changed to Arabic or French, possibly to make pronouncing a bit easier. I think it's fair to say that we don't even eat as much pasta as many other locals here, they consume it that much. 

Rice, on the other hand, isn't really a thing here. And not just because it's not a culinary tradition, but the cheapest rice here is 6 times as expensive as pasta. So for many people, including us, rice is really an once in a while treat. I personally am also a bit sensitive to rice. I had no idea that it was a thing (being sensitive to pasta is understandable... you know, wheat, gluten and all that!), but after trying again and again I've noticed that- with many kinds of rice, many ways of preparation- soaking, not soaking, using water, using broth etc. Everytime I eat rice, my esophagus really hurts, as if it's being suffocated or something. I do like rice though, so sometimes I can't help but to "hurt" myself and still eat rice when I prepare it for my family. And every single time I regret it again. I did find some decent replacements, to eat when my family eats rice. These include burgul (or bulgur) wheat, barley, and orzo (rice shaped pasta). It's still different, but a decent replacement in case you can't buy or tolerate rice. 

So pasta it is for us, on a lot of days. How do we eat them? Here's some ways we enjoy them most often: 

The most well known traditional Tunisian way (recipe soon to come). 

Makarouna bechamel, also known as the "Arabic mac 'n cheese" 

Italian pasta all'ortolana (with mixed vegetables) 

Aglio e olio (garlic and olive oil) 

The "Dutch way" of pasta with red sauce, mince, and lots of veggies

Pasta with a creamy sauce and whatever vegetables we have on hand; we had this on Monday, when I used up a lot of chard 

Pasta salads during the summer 

Pasta based soups; such as mhamsa (Tunisian pearl couscous soup), or makarouna jaria (another kind of soup with small pasta shapes), cream of chicken soup with vermicelli/orzo, etc. We eat these mainly during the winter. 

Steamed pastas: vermicelli and nouassar (which is, I think, a very traditional shape that isn't even found in Italy - it's flat, like the shape of a small postage). We also have a steamed orzo dish regularly. Steaming pasta is probably a very north African thing to do, and it's very yummy. Some steamed pastas are one pot meals whereas others have a separate sauce/stew added on top. 

And of course, pasta is very suitable for using up all kinds of leftovers! This is probably one of my favourites as you never know what you end up with and it's never disappointing. 

We do eat some Asian style dishes with noodles too, however, I don't think that fits in this post and probably needs it's own post. 

So, these were some of the reasons why we eat a lot of pasta and how we eat them.