When Pizza went to Morocco

The Medfouna Pizza or the Berber Pizza, whichever you wish to call it, is not pizza as you and me know it. But that does not make it any less delicious than the pizza as we know it. Maybe it becomes more appealing for its rustic origins in such a beautiful land.

7.jpg

The Berber Pizza is a Moroccan baked flat bread with a flavoursome stuffing. The filling is generally made of herbs, spices, diced onions and meat, mostly cow or lamb. Hard boiled egg and fried almonds are optional additions to this amazing dish. It’s actually more like a Calzone. I am sure you can relate better now.

2.jpg

‘Medfouna’ literally means ‘buried’. In ancient times, the burning coals would be doused in sand. The bread would then be lowered in this hot sand and covered till the bread cooked in the heat. Medfouna/Berber is essentially Morocco’s version of stuffed pizza, sans cheese. What’s pizza without cheese, you say, well, try the Berber and then let’s talk.

6.jpg

The general accompaniment of the Medfouna is piping hot mint tea. This mint tea acts as a palette balancer. It cuts and contrasts the flavor of the fat of the meat and pair very well with the Medfouna.

3.jpg

You can find the Berber pizza throughout the deserts of southeastern Morocco, but the Berber/Medfouna essentially originated in the land of Rissani. What’s most interesting about the Medfouna is that raw tender meat is used in the filling, that is, the meat is not cooked in any way before being stuffed into the bread. The Berber would easily take 4- to 50 minutes to cook properly, because the meat stuffed inside the bread has to cook completely and properly before it can be consumed.

8.jpg

You can find a good vegetarian version of the Medfouna Berber Pizza here. A good non vegetarian recipe can be found here. You can also try these recipes – Recipe 1, Recipe 2.

5.jpg

 

 

6 Comments Add yours

  1. masgautsen says:

    This looks delicious!

  2. Parul Thakur says:

    Looks delicious! If I get to Morocco, will sure give this one a try 🙂

  3. did you try eating it made the traditional way? Looks amazing

    1. forktrails says:

      Fiona, actually i am a vegetarian. So i did try the vegetarian version. Made it at home. The traditional would have lamb or meat,but my friend tried it and he loved it.

  4. thebeasley says:

    Oh this sounds lovely!

  5. bhavipatel says:

    Reblogged this on blackbeautyandme.

Penny for your thoughts!