Rechta is the dish Algiers makes when the calendar asks for something special. It is thin, flat, fresh noodles, traditionally rolled and cut by hand from semolina dough, steamed rather than boiled, then heaped on a platter under chicken, turnips and chickpeas and soaked with a white sauce perfumed by cinnamon and white pepper. Families serve it for Mawlid, for Ashura, through Ramadan and to welcome a new baby, and in Blida and Constantine it is loved with the same devotion, though Constantine cooks often prefer a red, tomato based sauce. In Algiers, the white version is not up for discussion.

The flavors are gentle and warm rather than fiery, the sort of comfort that makes people go quiet at the table. Dried rechta from North African grocers steams beautifully and saves an afternoon of rolling, and if you cannot find it, the thinnest flat noodles you can buy will see you to the finish. Like couscous, it rewards the cook who steams in stages and breaks up every clump between them.

The chicken and white sauce

Ingredients

• 3 lb (1.4 kg) bone in chicken thighs and drumsticks, skin removed
• 3 tablespoons (45 ml) olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon (15 g) butter or smen
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 2 teaspoons fine salt
• 8 cups (1.9 liters) water
• 1 can (15 oz / 425 g) chickpeas
• 1 1/2 lb (680 g) small turnips
• 2 small zucchini
• 1 small handful flat leaf parsley

Method

1. Set the pot over medium heat and add the oil and the butter or smen. When the butter has melted, add the grated onion and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring often, without letting it brown. Add the cinnamon stick, ground cinnamon, white pepper and salt and stir for 30 seconds.
2. Add the chicken pieces and turn them in the onion and spices with the tongs for 4 to 5 minutes, so every piece is coated and has lost its raw pink look on the outside. This sauce is meant to stay pale, so you are sealing the chicken, not browning it.
3. Pour in the water and the chickpeas, scrape the bottom of the pot with the wooden spoon and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down so the broth bubbles gently, set the lid half on and simmer for 25 minutes. Start the first steaming of the noodles above the pot now.
4. Add the turnips, push them under the broth and simmer for 15 minutes. If the chicken is already very tender, lift it out onto a plate, cover it with foil and return it at the end to warm through.
5. Add the zucchini and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes more. Fish out the cinnamon stick. Taste the broth and add salt a pinch at a time until it tastes well seasoned on its own, because it has to season the noodles too.

The steamed noodles

Ingredients

• 1 lb (450 g) dried rechta noodles
• 3 tablespoons (45 ml) vegetable oil
• 1 cup (240 ml) lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons (30 g) butter or smen

Method

1. Put the noodles in the big bowl, drizzle with the oil and turn them gently with your fingers until every strand is coated. If you are using long dried rechta in nests, loosen the nests so the strands separate. Oil stops them from welding together in the steam.
2. Set the steamer basket on the simmering pot and seal any gap with the twisted damp towel or a strip of foil. Tip in the noodles loosely without pressing them down. Once steam rises through the top of the noodles, steam uncovered for 10 minutes.
3. Tip the noodles back into the bowl. Sprinkle over half the salted water a little at a time, lifting and separating the strands with a fork, then with your fingers once they are cool enough to touch. Break up every clump you find.
4. Return the noodles to the steamer for 10 minutes once steam rises through them. Tip them out, sprinkle with the rest of the salted water and loosen them again, then steam a third time for 10 minutes. Taste a strand at the end; if it still has a hard core, steam for 5 minutes more.
5. Tip the noodles into the bowl, scatter over the butter or smen and lift and toss them with two forks until it melts and coats them. Moisten with 2 ladles of the hot white sauce and toss again.

To serve

Ingredients

• 1 pinch ground cinnamon
• 1 small handful flat leaf parsley

Method

1. Heap the noodles on the warm platter. Arrange the chicken on top and the turnips, zucchini and chickpeas around and over it. Ladle a generous amount of the white sauce over everything, scatter with parsley and a very light dusting of cinnamon, and bring the rest of the sauce to the table in a jug.

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