Taktouka — Roasted Pepper and Tomato Salad

Ingredients

• 6 (large) sweet green peppers, Capsicum annuum — left whole for flame-roasting
• 600 g ripe tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• ½ tsp Aleppo pul biber, Essaouira version only
• 60 ml olive oil, extra-virgin; divided — part for cooking, part finished raw off heat
• 1 tsp preserved-lemon rind, finely diced; Essaouira signature, added in the final minute

Method

1. 1
   Set the whole peppers directly over a gas flame or under a broiler at maximum heat, turning them with tongs at intervals until the skin is uniformly charred and blistered on all sides — no patch of green skin should remain. Transfer immediately to a sealed bag or covered bowl and leave to steam for exactly ten minutes, so the trapped heat and moisture loosen the skin from the flesh without you losing any of the sweet juices to a bowl of water. When you open the bag, the skins should slip free under light pressure.
2. 2
   Peel the peppers over a bowl to catch any juices, then discard the skins and seeds. Tear the flesh by hand into rough strips rather than reaching for a knife, so the fibres part along their natural grain and the strips keep that silky, yielding texture a blade would shear away. Set the strips and any pooled juices aside.
3. 3
   Warm two-thirds of the olive oil in a wide, heavy pan over medium heat, add the garlic, and cook briefly until fragrant but not coloured. Add the cumin, sweet paprika, and pul biber, and stir them into the oil for thirty seconds so the spices bloom in the fat rather than sitting raw in the liquid that follows — the pan should smell toasty and the oil will turn a deep brick-red.
4. 4
   Add the chopped tomatoes and any collected pepper juices, raise the heat to medium-high, and stir frequently until the mixture reduces to a thick, near-dry base that pulls away from the sides of the pan, so you are building a concentrated foundation rather than a watery sauce that will dilute the peppers when they go in. Raw ripe tomatoes reach this point relatively quickly; the base must be dense before you move on.
5. 5
   Stir in the preserved-lemon rind and let it meld with the tomato base for one minute so its sharp, brined fragrance softens into the mixture rather than sitting sharp on top. Fold in the torn pepper strips and simmer together for five minutes only, so the peppers warm through and take on the spiced tomato without surrendering their shape — at the end they should be integrated with the base yet still identifiable as distinct pieces within it.
6. 6
   Remove the pan from the heat and drizzle the remaining raw olive oil over the surface without stirring it fully in, so it sits as a bright, grassy thread on top and carries its fresh flavour straight to the palate rather than disappearing into the cooked base. Serve warm or at room temperature; the flavours deepen as the salad rests.