Not Your Savta’s Matbucha

My father was a very intuitive gardener and his home-grown vegetables were prize-winners. By early August, an abundance of plump, red tomatoes filled baskets that we handed out to relatives and friends. We ate lots of tomato salad and ratatouille, but sometimes we just sliced a sun-kissed, ripe tomato, seasoned it with salt and ate it sandwiched between two slices of fresh white bread slathered with Hellmann’s® mayo. No matter that the juice of the tomato soaked through the bread and made a big puddle. This delicacy was best enjoyed eaten standing over the kitchen sink for just that reason.

Not Your Savta’s Matbucha

My vegetable garden is not going to win any awards this year but fortunately the baskets of locally grown field tomatoes at my neighborhood grocery were plentiful and beckoned enticingly. Maybe too enticingly. Faced with a surplus of ripe tomatoes that needed to be used quickly, this recipe for matbucha was the perfect solution. Matbucha, a Moroccan tomato and pepper dip, is made with tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and olive oil. It’s traditionally a spicy condiment, its heat coming from hot pepper flakes or cayenne. The traditional Moroccan matbucha can be an all-day kitchen affair. However this shortcut recipe published in the Winter 2016 edition of Joy of Kosher magazine is as delicious as the original and much faster and easier to make. Enjoy this salty-sweet and mildly spicy tomato dip on fresh challah or pita bread, or as a sandwich spread, an omelet filling or with fresh crudités. Once you’ve tasted this homemade matbucha you won’t want to settle for the store bought version of this dip any longer.

Assemble your ingredients. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Roughly chop 4 ripe tomatoes, 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper and 1/2 of a medium onion into a 1-inch dice. Add 5 cloves of peeled fresh garlic and spread the chopped vegetables on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread out the vegetables so that they are not overlapping. Drizzle the vegetables with 1/4 cup olive oil and season them with 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1/8 teaspoon of dried Aleppo pepper flakes or any other chile pepper flakes. Mix the spices and oil into the vegetables thoroughly. Roast the vegetables for 25 minutes on the medium rack of the oven.

Add the roasted vegetables and accompanying juices to the bowl of a food processor. Using the S-blade, pulse until chunky. (You can decide how chunky you like it.) Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator.

Print Recipe

Not Your Savta's Matbucha

Vegetables and Sides

By Joy of Kosher – Serves: 8

Prep Time: 15 minutes – Cooking Time: 25 minutes – Total Time: 40 minutes

Moroccan tomato and pepper dip, made with roasted tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and olive oil seasoned to taste with chile pepper flakes

Ingredients

• 4 ripe tomatoes
• 1 green pepper, membranes and seeds removed
• 1 red bell pepper, membranes and seeds removed
• 1/2 of a medium onion
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon Aleppo-style pepper flakes or any other type of dried chile pepper flakes

Instructions

1

Assemble your ingredients. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

2

Coarsely chop the tomatoes, peppers and onion into a 1-inch dice. Peel 5 whole garlic cloves. Spread the vegetables out evenly on the baking sheet. Don't allow them to overlap.

3

Drizzle the vegetables with olive oil and season them with salt, sugar, and whatever chile pepper flakes you're using. Make sure the olive oil and seasoning is evenly distributed.

4

Roast the vegetables on the middle rack of the oven for 25 minutes.

5

Allow the vegetables to cool slightly. Tip the pan with the vegetables and accumulated juices into the bowl of a food processor with the S-blade attached (that's the chopping/mixing blade). Pulse until chunky. Ten pulses is my preference. You may prefer your matbucha less/more chunky. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.

6

Place in a covered container in the fridge until ready to eat. Serve with fresh challah, pita, flat bread, crackers, fresh vegetables...

Notes

Matbucha freezes beautifully.