The recently opened Absinthe Wine Bar, located at 111 First Avenue, is something of a typical East Village restaurant oddity: the place doesn’t serve absinthe, for starters, and for all the Toulouse-Lautrec opulence the name is meant to evoke, chef Nelson German’s menu features a lot of North African flourishes. All of this has an explanation, however: Absinthe’s restaurateurs Walid Hammami and Rafik Bouzgarrou are both Tunisian. They also operate Angelina Café and Atlas Café, the small, vegan friendly bake sale themed Second Avenue restaurant (apparently favored by extremely legendary composer Phillip Glass).
Absinthe, Atlas, and Angelina all feature merguez sausage paired with homemade harissa, made with chef/partner Bouzgarrou’s recipe. At Absinthe, merguez with roasted tomatoes and harissa is $7, and the spicy paste is also added to a white bean ragu accompanying meatballs (also $7). Most commonly sold in a yellow toothpaste tube (it’s not toothpaste) with an Arabic label, harissa has about a million variations (one variety is made with roses), is easy to make at home, and might as well become your new all-purpose condiment. Below, Rafik Bouzgarrou’s recipe.
Harissa
by Rafik Bouzgarrou
2 pounds Italian long hot red pepper, stems and seeds removed
4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
2 tbs. coriander
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and white pepper to taste
In a pot with a lid, steam peppers in small amount of water until soft; let cool for 5 minutes at room temperature. Blend peppers, garlic, and coriander in food processor. In a slow stream, slowly add olive oil; add salt and pepper to taste. After transferring to a container, cover with small amount of olive oil to preserve. Yields 1 ½ cups harissa; keeps refrigerated for up to one week.
