Table Trotter

Dinner night · Libya

Mbakbaka

Libya's one-pot pasta, cooked right in a spiced tomato-and-chile sauce with tender chicken thighs and chickpeas, so the noodles soak up every bit of flavor.

Libya · back to the map
On our list — not yet cooked
Mbakbaka: Libya's one-pot pasta, cooked right in a spiced tomato-and-chile sauce with tender chicken thighs and chickpeas, so the noodles soak up every bit of flavor
AI-generated illustration
Prep
15 min
Cook
40 min
Total
55 min
Serves
2 adults + 1 child, with a lunch portion left over
Budget
$14–$22

Mbakbaka (also written imbakbaka or macarona mbakbaka) is the pasta dish Libyan families cook on an ordinary evening: short pasta simmered directly in a thick, red, warmly spiced sauce of tomato, onion, garlic and chile with pieces of chicken or lamb and a handful of chickpeas, until the pasta drinks up the liquid and the whole pot turns glossy and thick. There is no separate boiling and draining; the starch from the pasta thickens the sauce as it cooks. The spice comes from bzaar, the Libyan blend built on turmeric, coriander, caraway and chile, and the result sits somewhere between a pasta and a stew.

Why it's on our list

Libya is a country whose food almost nobody outside the region can name, and mbakbaka is a weeknight dish by birth, not by adaptation: it is what people actually make on a Tuesday. The technique I want to learn is cooking dry pasta in sauce, judging the liquid so the pasta ends tender and the sauce thick rather than soupy or scorched. It is one pot, about 55 minutes, and the shopping list is almost entirely pantry. The chile is traditional and I am keeping it, but I will set my son's portion aside before the final pinch goes in.

Field notes · Origin & culture

Pasta is a legacy of Libya's Italian colonial period and is now completely at home there, especially along the coast and in Tripoli, where mbakbaka is a household staple; an eastern-Libyan version of the same one-pot idea is sometimes called macarona jariya. Libyan food sits between the Maghreb and the eastern Mediterranean, with couscous, bazin (a dense barley dough eaten with stew) and a family of tomato-based stews at its center, and it is seasoned with two home-made blends: bzaar, built on coriander, caraway, turmeric, garlic, ginger and dried chile, and bokharat, a warm mix of black pepper, paprika, cumin, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom. Recipes for mbakbaka vary by family, so this is one practical version rather than the only one. Thick, sweet Libyan tea, often served with peanuts, follows the meal.

Noteworthy ingredients

  • Bzaar-style spice mix: Libyan grocers are rare in the US, so I am mixing an approximation: turmeric, ground coriander, caraway, a little cinnamon and chile. It will not be anyone's grandmother's bzaar, but the profile is right. Whole caraway seeds can be crushed in a bag with a rolling pin.
  • Short dry pasta: Libyans often use penne, elbows or short tubes. Use something sturdy; thin shapes overcook before the sauce thickens.
  • Chicken thighs or lamb: Lamb is traditional but needs longer; boneless chicken thighs make this a true weeknight pot. Lamb timing is in the Cook steps.
  • Chile: Fresh green chile or a spoon of harissa; either is in keeping with the dish.

Prep — 15 min

  1. Cut the chicken into 1 1/2-inch pieces and season with 1 teaspoon salt and the black pepper.
  2. Finely dice the onion. Mince the garlic. Slice the chile thin, seeds removed for less heat. Chop the parsley.
  3. Mix the spice blend in a small bowl: turmeric, coriander, caraway, cinnamon. Keep the chile flakes separate.
  4. Rinse and drain the chickpeas.
  5. Dice the cucumber and tomatoes for the salad, season with salt, lemon juice and a little olive oil, and set aside.

Cook — 40 min

  1. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken for 3–4 minutes per side; move to a plate. (For lamb: brown the same way, then simmer with the sauce and stock for 45 minutes before the pasta goes in, adding more water as needed.)
  2. Lower the heat to medium, add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook 6 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and half the sliced chile and cook 1 minute.
  3. Stir in the tomato paste and the spice blend; cook 1–2 minutes, stirring, until the paste darkens and the kitchen smells of caraway and turmeric.
  4. Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, the chicken and 3 1/2 cups stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered 10 minutes so the flavors come together.
  5. Stir in the dry pasta. Keep the heat at a lively simmer and stir every 2–3 minutes so the pasta does not stick, cooking 12–15 minutes, until the pasta is tender and the sauce has thickened and coats it. Add the remaining 1/2 cup stock (or hot water) if the pot looks dry before the pasta is done.
  6. Spoon out a portion for the mild plate. Then stir the chile flakes or harissa and the rest of the sliced chile into the pot for the adults, taste for salt, and finish with parsley and a squeeze of lemon. Rest 5 minutes; the sauce tightens a little more.

Serving

Serve mbakbaka in shallow bowls straight from the pot, with the chopped salad alongside and lemon wedges on the table. My son's bowl is the portion set aside before the extra chile went in, which still carries a gentle warmth from the half-chile cooked into the sauce, so I will taste it first and have the salad ready as backup. Leftovers keep three days in the fridge; the pasta will have absorbed more sauce, so reheat with a good splash of water in a covered pan over low heat.

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