“Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you are.” The French lawyer and gastronome Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote it in 1826 in his work “Physiology of Taste,” to indicate the possibility of profiling an individual’s character and personality through their diet.
In reality, if instead of referring to each person’s plate we refer to the cuisine of the society to which they belong, it becomes easy to understand how much cuisine represents part of the very identity of a community, be it a country, a geographical area or a people: a constantly changing food identity that undergoes evolutions over time based on events and exchanges in continuous reworkings and new ingredients.
Food becomes culture when it is prepared, when it is consumed, when it is chosen. Through the combination of ingredients, the different tastes, flavours and consistencies on the palate, the preparation methods, the tools used, the types of cooking, the stories, the customs and the symbolism that each dish brings with it, up to the different ways of consuming the meal, cooking becomes an element and expression of cultures, therefore also a tool for knowledge.
Let’s begin this journey through the flavours and varieties of the cuisines of the various peoples of Africa. To celebrate and share. Our journey starts in the Land of Pharaohs.
Egypt
Koshari, a vegetarian dish
This combination of pasta, rice, legumes, tomatoes and caramelized onions is one of the most popular vegetarian dishes in Egypt and, together with felafel, represents the street food par excellence in the Land of the Pyramids.
Time 1 ½ hours + time to soak the legumes
Serves 4
Ingredients
150 gr of green or brown lentils
50 gr of chickpeas
100 gr of rice
100 gr of short pasta
2 large onions, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic
3 dl of tomato puree
1 hot chili pepper
1 pinch of cumin
salt, oil and black pepper to taste.
Preparation
After soaking the lentils and chickpeas in water overnight, cook them for 40 minutes, drain and leave to rest covered. In two different pots, boil the rice and short pasta (broken spaghetti or ditalini), according to their cooking times. In the meantime, fry the sliced onions in a little oil and, as soon as they start to brown and caramelize, remove half and add the crumbled chili pepper, chopped garlic, tomato puree and spices to the rest, and let simmer for a few minutes. In a large pan, combine all the ingredients: rice, lentils, pasta, chickpeas and spicy tomato sauce. Sauté everything over high heat to mix but be careful not to dry it out too much. Plate, garnishing with the caramelized onion that you had set aside and, if you like, with some chopped fresh coriander or fresh tomatoes seasoned with salt and oil and cut into slices.
