Matbucha

Matbucha is tomatoes and peppers cooked down slowly for hours into a thick, jammy, garlicky relish. It's a Moroccan Jewish dish, carried into Israel by Moroccan immigrants, and it's since become a standard part of the mezze table alongside dips and salads with entirely different regional origins.

What it really is

Roasted or fresh peppers and tomatoes, both peeled, cook down together over low heat for a long time — often well over an hour — with plenty of garlic and a measured amount of chilli, stirred occasionally as the mixture reduces. That long, slow cooking is what breaks the vegetables down into a soft, jammy, deeply concentrated relish rather than a fresh, chunky salsa; the texture should be thick enough to hold a spoon standing briefly, closer to a chutney than a raw dip.

Its long cooking time is what separates it from a quick tomato-pepper salad. A version simmered only briefly stays too loose and bright-tasting; matbucha's identity depends on that extended reduction concentrating the sweetness and softening the vegetables completely.

How it's served

• Cold or at room temperature, alongside bread for scooping.
• As part of a mezze spread with other dips and salads.
• With eggs, as a base for a version of shakshuka in some households.

How to write it on the menu

• No major allergens are inherent to the base recipe.
• It's naturally vegan and vegetarian.
• Say how spicy it is, since the chilli level varies from mild to genuinely hot depending on the recipe.