A taste of Tunisia: Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes inspired by

Houria – a riotously flavoured mashed carrot salad with eggs and coriander salsa – and spicy Tunisian savoury pastries

Its location on the very northern tip of Africa, right on the Mediterranean and close to Italy, means Tunisian cuisine is a wonderfully unique fusion of flavours. Take harissa, for example, which is traditionally made with wood-smoked sun-dried chillies that are pounded with caraway and plenty of other spices, then steeped in oil to make a quite brilliant hot condiment. I love it stirred into Tunisian fricassee, which is a sandwich made with deep-fried bread stuffed with tuna, olives, boiled eggs and potato. Though harissa is perhaps the Tunisian ingredient I turn to the most, the country’s food encompasses so much more, and is a world of flavour I can’t get enough of exploring.