Libyan Rishtet-Keskas: Making Good Use of a Couscoussier
Words & photos by Hala Ghellali
An often-cited old Tripolitanian saying whose rhymes are difficult to render into English translation, captures the key characteristics of the beloved rishtet-keskas:
“رشتة كسكاس واللحم كداس كداس”
Lavishly topped with lamb meat, hiding under a glistening vermilion sauce made with onions, chickpeas, spices, and tomato paste, and dusted with a mix of cinnamon and cloves, the rishta’s thin, long threads are the result of long hours of preparation and cooking. A labor of patience and skill born in a Tripolitanian kitchen, rishtet-keskas has been passed down throughout generations of cooks to become an iconic traditional dish in Libyan cuisine. Considered a time-consuming and costly dish, it requires a substantial amount of the best cuts of lamb meat, sheep ghee of the highest quality, a mix of sweet spices, and orange blossom water—all of which are meticulously dosed and prepared according to family recipes. It is prepared for special occasions such as aqiqah upon the birth of a child, religious holidays such as Mid-Sha'ban and Mawlid-al Nabawi, and social events to honor guests.
The rishtet-keskas, as its name implies, is steam-cooked in the keskas or upper part of the couscoussier. This step is essential as it gives its uniqueness to the dish, resulting in a balanced combination of thin, light steamed noodles covered in a rich sauce and meat cooked to a melting perfection. The rishta is always freshly made and doesn’t need to be coated in oil as in recipes of steamed pasta from Eastern Libya, such as makarouna mbawkha, or other North African recipes of steamed dry noodles, such as f’daouchs, sha’riya, or vermicelli.
Rishtet-keskas has a rustic sister “rishtet-burma” that shares similarities with reshta, reshteh, erishte, arishta, kesme, a cousin of all noodles cooked in rich broths or sauces. Its noodle shape is thick, flat and short. The antiquated word “burma” implies that it was, and still is, cooked in a “burma” – a deep earthen pot or a metal recipient. Loaded with legumes, onion, garlic, dried meat, spices, tomato paste, and a substantial amount of cayenne pepper and hot green chilies takes it to a stellar level of heat on the Scoville scale. It is usually consumed during the winter season as it is quite fulfilling and warming, and like rishtet-keskas, requires that the noodles be made fresh and from scratch.
Noodles have been known to be part of the cuisine east of the Mediterranean since the 4th century. And Arab medieval cookbooks from the 9th century have recipes for noodles referred to as i'triya(s) or a’triya(s). Two medieval cookbooks from the 13th century, “Kitab-al-Tabikh” by Al-Baghdadi and “Kitab-al-wusla-ilal-habib” by an anonymous Syrian author, have few recipes of “itrya(s)”. Each book includes one recipe for rishta. Al-Baghdadi does specify that it is a type of rolled noodles cut into threads. And all recipes are of noodles cooked in broth or fat.
Reshta is etymologically Persian; it means a thread or string, and by extension, a thin, long variety of noodles. There are plausible historical references to rishta: Ibn Sina is quoted to have said that it was called rishta and eaten in Khorasan. Ibn Khaldun was served rishta in Damascus at a meal during which he met Timur (Tamerlane) in person. Little is known about the way it was prepared for that occasion.
Al-Andalus and North Africa in medieval times were big consumers of noodles with a rich variety in shapes. Two cookbooks, one from the 12th century by an anonymous author, “Kitab-a-tabikh fil-Maghrib-wal-Andalus,” and the 13th century “Fadalaat-al-khiwan fi tayibat-a-ta’am wal-alwan” by Ibn al-Razin al-Tujibi, have numerous recipes for noodles—cooked either in fat or broth—and attest to their popularity in the region. Two main terms were used for noodles: “itriya” and “fidawsh". Over the centuries, “itrya” as a name has fallen into disuse, while “fidawsh”— or currently “f’dawsh”—is still used in Morocco. In Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, there are no traces of either word, and some historians suggest that the use of the term “rishta” arises in light of the Ottoman imperial presence in the region. Further, the making of the thin long threads of rishta variety from scratch, then steaming them, is shared by three cities: Algiers, Bizerte, and Tripoli. Each city has its recipe, reshta in Algiers, reshta njara benzartia in Bizerte—njara means sawdust, with a savory recipe and a sweet one eaten during Ramadan—and rishtet-keskas in Tripoli.
There are no references to when the recipe of rishtet-keskas was developed in Tripoli’s kitchens. However, it is speculated that the name was probably introduced by the Ottomans after 1830, during the second Ottoman rule, as there is no mention of it before that date. Pasta, or “makrouna, makarouna” as it is called locally, does appear in local diaries as an imported good packed in wooden crates from Naples at the beginning of the 19th century, before Ottoman rule. Pasta, cheese and wine arrived in Tripoli in common shipments. According to historical sources, “makrouna” was served in the households of dignitaries, sent as a cooked delicacy to close friends on the occasion of weddings or circumcisions. Nevertheless, there are no traces of recipes. There are no recipes for steamed pasta, or precisely steamed spaghetti, the only shape consumed in the local cuisine until the first decades of the 20th century.
As for rishtet-keskas, before the introduction of Italian pasta machines in the sixties – the famous Ampia and Atlas models made by Marcato – rishta was entirely made by hand. Seated in front of a sofra (a low wooden table), the rishta maker in charge rolled each dough ball, most of the time a firm, simple and elastic dough made of flour and water, with a very long and thin rolling pin, dusting it frequently with flour until it became an almost transparent circle. The sheet was rolled around the pin. Once the rolling pin was removed, the mastery of making rishta appeared when slicing with a sharp knife into the rolled sheet to produce the thinnest light threads.
“طرابلس أرض الزهر و الحنة، اجعل ترابك من تراب الجنة”
Here comes the good use of the couscoussier; while the meat is already simmering in a sauce rich with a mix of spices known as “bzar,” cayenne pepper, and tomato sauce, the “keskas”— the upper part or steamer—is put on top to begin the making of the boussla, the onion sauce which is the essential component of the dish and which covers the rishta. Lots of sliced onions and soaked chickpeas are parcooked in the steamer, then transferred to another pan. The steamer is then slightly wiped with oil, and the process of steaming rishta three times takes place. Spices, ghee and ladles of the meat sauce are added to the onions and chickpeas pan. The fat at the surface of the meat sauce is skimmed and reserved for the rishta to which it’s added once cooked, followed also by a dusting of cloves and cinnamon. The rishta is sprinkled with orange blossom water while steaming. Orange blossom water is also added to the boussla when ready—besides being a staple in every household, orange blossom water is used in many Libyan traditional dishes, both savory and sweet, and Tripoli is described by an old saying as “the land of orange blossoms and henna”
The rishta is then delicately arranged in a large serving bowl. Its surface is covered with the boussla, the meat is placed in a mound in the middle with more boussla to cover it. The surface is dusted with cloves and cinnamon as a final touch.
Rishta became widely available beyond the confines of Tripolitanian homes when pasta machines were introduced. By the late 90s, small shops selling rishta made by women were popping up – some attached to houses. Customers were lining up to buy fresh rishta that would shorten the preparation and cooking times. Commercial pasta machines and their outlets contributed to the growing popularity of rishtet-keskas. As a matter of fact, its availability has become a source of heated debates among the purists and tradition keepers in light of the alteration of its name in certain parts of the country and various attempts to modify the original recipe. Despite all of this, rishtet-keskas maintains its place as the iconic dish worthy of special occasions.