Instructions: My mother still prepares her own fresh pasta for boketof. The night before making the soup she combines the flour, yeast and water in a large bowl and then transfers it to working surface where she kneads the dough until the mixture is smooth and elastic. Once that is done, she puts it back in a bowl which she covers with a tea-towel and allows the dough to rise for two hours.

When it has doubled in size, she takes a tray covered with a clean tea-towel and starts to shape the pasta, making spaghetti-like strands about 2 inches long but roughly three times thicker than ordinary spaghetti. She lays them out one by one on the tray, then covers them again with another tea-towel and leaves them overnight. The following morning the pasta strands are dry enough to put them in the soup.

Nowadays, of course, few of us find the time to make fresh pasta and most people buy it ready-made.

To make the soup she heats the oil in a large, heavy pan over a medium heat and fries the meat. To that she adds the onions, tomatoes, drained broad beans, paprika and about 4 pints of water. After 30 minutes she reduces the heat and allows the dish to cook gently for 2 hours.

10 minutes before the end of the cooking she seasons the soup with salt and pepper and then adds the pasta and the courgettes. make sure there is enough liquid in the pan because, after all, this is a soup. If you need more water, always add cold water.

She adds the coriander immediately before serving.

To make the soup that little bit more special, she always puts a small dish of harissa on the table for those of us who like a dash of chilli.

preparation / cooking: 30 minutes for the pasta, 30 minutes for the soup / 2 hours 30 minutes

country: Morocco

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