Similar to the beloved ratatouille Niçoise of Nice, France, this Moroccan dip called kamfounata is made with eggplant, tomato, and zucchini —  it’s stewy, saucy and perfect for dipping into at a Shabbat dinner or weekend brunch.

While Simone Azoulay changes her Shabbat menu every week, this jammy cooked Moroccan salad of tomatoes and peppers is the one constant. Her son Marc, who lives in New York City, makes it in his home as well.

In Marc Azoulay’s family, this simple beet salad with cumin is served as part of the first course on Shabbat along with an avocado salad and salade cuite, a jammy melange of tomatoes and peppers.

Ron Arazi’s grandmother always made this simple soup for her sukkah, which operated like an open house. “Friends, family and neighbors stopped by for this special soup with harissa,” he says. Be sure to have good harissa, like one from NY Shuk, on hand for this recipe.

This light tomato salad that’s punctuated with briny capers was served over couscous during summers in Kathy Berrie’s childhood home in Morocco. It’s best when tomatoes are at their peak.

While the North African condiment harissa is readily available, it’s fun and easy to make at home. On Saturday mornings, Joanna Bensimon would help her mother make this harissa recipe as she watched cartoons.

A jammy dip, spread, or salad (depending on who you ask), matbucha is an essential part of Jewish Moroccan cooking and often served as part of a spread of small salads along with challah as a first course on Shabbat. 

A North African omelette is thicker and fluffier than the one many of us know — more like a Spanish tortilla or Italian frittata. This one with potatoes, peas, and spinach, comes from Elle Brosh’s Algerian great-grandmother.

The base of this shakshuka is a long simmered sauce with tomatoes, peppers, and lots of garlic. To save yourself time in the morning, you can make it the day before and store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

These seasoned fish patties from Simone Azoulay’s Moroccan family are first poached and then finished in a rich tomato sauce. You can serve this as a first course along with salads, or on its own. Be sure to have challah on hand for dipping.

In Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, and Libyan families, it’s common to prepare a spicy fish recipe for the start of Shabbat. This version starts with a simple vegetable saute seasoned with paprika, cumin, and turmeric.

Chef and baker Rinat Tzadok’s riff on Moroccan fish is prepared with sushi grade tuna, red snapper and homemade garlic confit, which you can make a few days in advance and store in the refrigerator.

Chef Nir Feller’s spicy fish recipe takes inspiration from several places: the Tunisian family his little sister married into, his experience working for famed Israeli chef Eyal Shani, and his time in the U.S. The dried ancho chiles add a nice smokiness to his recipe.

Like their neighbors, Jews have been making hand-rolled couscous in the Maghreb for almost 1,000 years. It requires a specialty couscousiere pot and some practice, but the results are well worth the effort.

While burning spinach might sound like a kitchen mistake, it is the key to this rich Tunisian Jewish stew. It takes time for the layers of flavor to develop, so start this stew mid-day on a chilly weekend and let it simmer until dinner. 

Ground potatoes help fill out these meatballs that are cooked in an onion sauce. Since the recipe calls for matzo meal instead of flour, you can also make these boulettes during Passover. 

Braised in a sauce of lemon juice, olives, ginger, cilantro, and saffron, these tender chicken thighs are served at Shabbat dinners in Simone Azoulay’s home in Paris. Pair them with couscous or rice.

Ground beef is spiced with nutmeg and saffron and lashed with vinegar in this Moroccan pastela recipe that often graced holiday tables in Kathy Berrie’s childhood home in Morocco.

A luscious and sunny sauce made from saffron, lemon juice, and egg yolks make this simple chicken dish standout.

In Morocco and Algerian traditions, ma’akoud or ma’akouda often refers to potato fritters. In Nitza Kardish’s Libyan family, it’s the name for this baked dish of mashed potatoes, carrots, zucchini, and ground beef that’s prepared on Fridays and kept warm overnight for Shabbat lunch.

Beef cheeks are braised until tender in this rich tagine from Los Angeles-based chef Ori Menashe. If you can’t find them at your butcher, beef short ribs are a fine replacement. Either way, be sure to start making this dish well in advance since it needs a full day to marinate.

Michel Thouati, whose family fled Spain for North Africa during the Inquisition, grew up with this recipe. When he tried to recreate it as an adult, it took him 15 years of experimenting to match the taste he remembered from childhood.

Mafrum is a prized and complex dish served in Libyan Jewish homes. Vegetables like potatoes and eggplant are sliced, stuffed with a meat mixture, dredged and fried, and simmered in a tomato sauce.

“There’s no Yom Kippur without boulou — that’s for sure,” filmmaker Audrey Garcia explains. Flavored with orange blossom water, the dessert is traditionally enjoyed by Tunisian and Libyan Jews, but is little known outside of those communities.

Yeasted Moroccan doughnuts called sfenj are served in some families for Hanukkah and or  Mimouna, a celebration to mark the end of Passover. You will want to have an instant read or deep fry thermometer on hand for this recipe. 

An essential part of Mimouna traditions (a North African celebration to mark the end of Passover), mufleta are crepes that can be eaten with butter and honey, fruit, or even chocolate spread.

Recipe writer Arielle Nir’s grandmother often had crunchy Moroccan anise cookies called rifat on hand to enjoy with tea. In her family, they are made with a pasta maker, but you can also use a rolling pin. 

During elaborate Sephardi meals, Michel Thouati’s grandmother Laure would serve this tea with mint, lemon, and pine nuts between courses as a refreshing palate cleanser for guests.