Bissara — Chefchaouen, Morocco

Bissara is a thick purée of dried, peeled fava beans, cooked with garlic until soft and blended smooth with cumin and olive oil. It is finished at the table with a generous drizzle of oil and, for those who want them, more cumin, paprika and chili powder, and it is eaten warm with bread and a glass of tea. It is eaten across much of northern Morocco, but Chefchaouen, the blue-walled town in the Rif mountains, has made it its winter dish. In the lanes of its medina, small stalls serve nothing else, from morning until evening, ladling it into clay bowls for anyone stopping by. To prepare it, the dried, peeled fava beans are rinsed and covered generously with water along with the garlic, then brought to a boil and skimmed before simmering for about an hour, until the beans fall apart. They are then blended with cumin, oil and salt into a smooth purée, loosened with some of the cooking water to the consistency of a thick soup, and reheated briefly before serving. The dish is built from inexpensive, filling ingredients, and its appeal lies in how it turns them into something warming rather than in any single elaborate technique. It thickens noticeably as it cools, so it is usually thinned with a little hot water before serving, and the mix of toppings — oil, cumin, paprika, chili — is left to each diner rather than fixed in the pot.