Best Madfouna in Merzouga — The Berber Desert Pizza

Madfouna — the name means buried — is a round, flat bread stuffed with a spiced filling of minced meat, onion, almonds, herbs and spices, sealed like a large calzone and traditionally baked buried under the hot sand and embers of a fire. The result is a golden, crusty disc that is cut into wedges and shared, the savoury filling steaming inside. It is the great communal dish of the desert oases of the Tafilalet, and Rissani, the old caravan town near Merzouga, is its acknowledged home.

Because it takes time to prepare and bake, madfouna is usually ordered ahead, especially at the desert kasbahs, guesthouses and camps around Merzouga and Erg Chebbi. Fillings vary — some use meat, others almonds and dates, some a mix — and each cook has their own hand with the spicing. Shared around a low table or on a rug in a Berber tent, torn by hand and eaten with sweet mint tea, it is as much an experience as a meal, tied to the hospitality of the desert.

Alongside madfouna, the Merzouga area serves the wider repertoire of nomadic and oasis cooking: slow-cooked desert tagines, dates from the Tafilalet groves, and the ceremonial pouring of mint tea, sometimes called Berber whisky in a local joke. Many travellers eat madfouna at a dune camp after a camel trek, when it arrives hot from a sand oven under a sky thick with stars — a meal that stays with you.

To eat it at its best, order ahead so it can be baked properly, share it the traditional way by hand, and pair it with mint tea. A guided desert food experience around Merzouga and Rissani, taking in madfouna and the date markets, is a wonderful way to eat the Sahara — message us on WhatsApp at wa.me/212701664704 to arrange one.