Slata Mechouia

Ingredients

• 4 green peppers
• 2 red peppers
• 2 hot green chillies
• 4 ripe tomatoes
• 1 onion, unpeeled
• 6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 100 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp ground caraway
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp salt
• 160 g tin tuna in olive oil, drained
• 2 eggs
• 12 black olives
• 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
• Bread, to serve

Before you cook

• Boil the eggs for 9 minutes, cool them under running water and peel them, then cut each into quarters.
• Heat a griddle pan or light a barbecue until it is very hot.

Steps

1. Lay the peppers, chillies, tomatoes, onion and garlic on the hot griddle.
2. Turn the vegetables every few minutes for about 15 minutes, until the skins are blackened and blistered all over.
3. Move each vegetable into a bowl as it is done and cover the bowl with a plate.
4. Leave them to steam in the covered bowl for 10 minutes.
5. Peel away the blackened skins with your fingers and pull out the pepper seeds.
6. Squeeze the garlic cloves out of their papery skins.
7. Chop all the vegetables together on a board with a heavy knife until coarse but cohesive, stopping well short of a puree.
8. Tip the chopped vegetables into a bowl and stir in the olive oil, caraway, coriander, lemon juice and salt.
9. Taste and add more lemon or salt until the salad tastes sharp as well as smoky.
10. Spread the salad on a shallow plate and flake the tuna over one half.
11. Arrange the egg quarters and olives around the edge.
12. Scatter with parsley and serve at room temperature with bread.