Hassa (Libyan Gravy) is a traditional Libyan recipe for a tomato-based sauce for couscous flavoured with meat, chillies, coriander, basil, mint and lemon juice. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Libyan version of: Libyan Gravy (Hassa).
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This is also known colloquially as 'Libyan Soup' in English and as the name suggests it can be served as a soup as well as being used as a simple sauce.
Ingredients:
3 or 4 pieces of ghiddeed (meat drippings) or fresh fatty beef or lamb
60ml oil
250g tomatoes, crushed
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp tomato purée
3 tbsp plain flour
salt, hot chilli powder and ground turmeric, to taste
2 green chillies, chopped
1 tbsp fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves, chopped
1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
juice of 1 lemon
Method:
Heat the oil in a pan then stir-in the ghiddeed or meat, crushed tomatoes, garlic and tomato purée. Bring to a simmer then add the herbs and season with the salt and spices.
Add 60ml water, bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the chillies and 750ml water then bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the flour in 200ml water until you have a smooth slurry and add this to the sauce. Whisk constantly until the sauce thickens then allow to boil for 5 minutes.
Stir-in the lemon juice, adjust the seasonings to taste then serve on a bed of couscous.
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