Fish Tagine with Tomato and Preserved Lemon — Casablanca Style

Morocco (Casablanca and the northern Atlantic coast — the urban fish tagine; a simpler, more accessible preparation than the Essaouira chermoula-forward version)

The Casablanca fish tagine is the urban variant: white-fleshed fish (Dicentrarchus labrax or Scomber scombrus mackerel in the more modest version) braised in a Mhammer-inflected tomato sauce — Solanum lycopersicum tomato, Allium cepa onion, Capsicum annuum pepper, Allium sativum garlic, cumin, paprika, and Olea europaea olive-oil — with preserved lemon quarters and cracked Moroccan olives added in the final stage. Unlike the Essaouira chermoula tagine, which is marinade-forward and herb-driven, the Casablanca version is sauce-first: the tomato-paprika base is the primary flavour and the fish is the protein cooked within it. The preparation reflects the Casablanca kitchen's more cosmopolitan sensibility — influenced by French colonial cooking and Andalusian-Sephardic traditions — producing a tagine that reads almost like a Provençal fish stew but is unambiguously Moroccan in its spice register.

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Served with khobz and plain couscous. The tomato-paprika sauce is less herb-intense than hout m'chermel and pairs well with a fresh salad of Solanum lycopersicum tomato and Allium cepa onion.