North African spices amp up Italian pasta sauce

MANY Americans think of only a handful of countries when they hear the word Mediterranean. But that sea is surrounded by a diverse set of peoples and cuisines that have been blending — deliciously — for millennia.

Take, for instance, macroona mbakbka, a satisfying one-pot meal that’s considered the national dish of Libya. Pasta made its way into Libyan cooking through Italian colonization during the early to mid-20th century. For mbakbka, it’s paired with spices, tomato and chicken, or sometimes other types of meat.

For our version from our book “Milk Street Tuesday Nights, Mediterranean,” which limits recipes to 45 minutes or less, we brown chicken thighs, then cook pasta shells in a spiced tomato sauce spiked with harissa, a North African spice paste. The harissa is a simple way to incorporate both chili heat and a mixture of aromatic spices.

We also add green beans to round out the