Africa → Mauritania → Nouakchott
🍢 SNACK
Fataye (Mauritanian Tuna Turnovers with Tomato Sauce)
Half-moon pastries filled with tuna cooked with onion, peppers and tomato, fried golden and served with a spicy onion and tomato sauce for dipping.
Mauritanian · medium · serves 6
prep 45 min · cook 45 min · plus 1 h hands-off time
~519 cal · 25g protein · 77g carbs · 11g fat · 5g fiber · 7g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Fataye are fried turnovers filled with tuna or meat and served with a tomato sauce, a snack loved in Mauritania and just as much across the river in Senegal, where they are also called pastels. Tuna is the most common filling.
A soft dough of flour, a little baking powder, egg and oil is rested, rolled thin and cut into rounds. Each is filled with tuna cooked down with onion, sweet peppers, garlic and tomato paste, folded into a half moon, sealed with a fork and fried in hot oil until puffed and golden.
The sauce matters as much as the pastry: onions cooked slowly with tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic and chili until the oil rises to the surface. The hot fataye are dipped in it or split and spooned full.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 500 g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
- 1 egg
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil, for the dough, plus about 1 litre for frying
- about 200 ml warm water
- 2 cans (about 280 g drained) canned tuna, drained
- 4 onions, finely chopped, 1 for the filling, 3 for the sauce
- 1/2 of each red and green bell pepper, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed, half for the filling, half for the sauce
- 3 tbsp tomato paste, 1 for the filling, 2 for the sauce
- 2 ripe tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 to 1 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 100 ml water (for the sauce)
Instructions
- 1Make the dough: mix the flour, baking powder and salt, add the beaten egg and 2 tbsp of the oil, then work in the warm water gradually and knead for 5 to 10 minutes until smooth and no longer sticky. Cover and rest for 1 hour.
- 2Make the filling: heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and cook 1 onion and the peppers for 5 minutes until soft. Add half the garlic, the tuna, 1 tbsp tomato paste, the black pepper and a pinch of salt and cook for 10 minutes, stirring, until dry. Let it cool completely.
- 3Make the sauce: heat the remaining 1 tbsp oil and cook the other 3 onions for 5 minutes, add the rest of the garlic and the tomatoes for 2 minutes, then the remaining tomato paste, the chili powder and salt. Cook for 10 minutes, add the water and simmer until thick and the oil rises to the top.
- 4Roll the dough out thinly, about 3 mm, and cut into 8 to 10 cm rounds. Put a teaspoon of filling on each, fold into a half moon and press the edges firmly with a fork.✎ Chef’s noteDo not overfill and keep the edges clean of filling, or the fataye open in the oil.
- 5Heat the frying oil to 180C (350F) and fry the fataye in small batches for 3 to 4 minutes, turning halfway, until puffed and evenly golden. Drain on paper and serve hot with the sauce.
Mauritanian and Senegalese street food tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Nouakchott. Nouakchott is a desert-edge capital where mechoui, whole lamb roasted slowly, marks celebrations. Mauritanian cooking joins Saharan and West African habits in thieboudienne-style fish and rice, camel meat and milk, and sweet mint tea.
🗺️
Mauritania. Tea is a sequence, not a cup. Green tea is brewed three times from the same leaves, poured from a height into small glasses to raise a head of foam, and served in three rounds that are said to go from bitter to sweet. Sitting through all three is the social obligation, and refusing partway is noticed.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Mauritania
MéchouiWhole lamb (or a shoulder) slow-roasted with cumin and salt until falling off the bone, desert feast food.
LakhSteamed millet couscous under cool sweetened curdled milk and fresh grated coconut, the Sahelian sweet Mauritania makes to mark the end of Ramadan.
Maru wa LahméMeat and vegetables simmered in a mustard-scented broth, then rice cooked in that broth, the generous communal lunch of the Mauritanian table.
Browse all Mauritania recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a Mauritania meal
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Similar dishes from around the world
Bis KeemiyaMaldives
PichadeMonaco
Pastels (Senegalese Fish Turnovers)Senegal
Rissóis de Camarão (Mozambican Shrimp Turnovers)Mozambique
BrikTunisia
Lampuki Pie (Torta tal-Lampuki)Malta
Frequently asked questions
What is Fataye (Mauritanian Tuna Turnovers with Tomato Sauce)?
Half-moon pastries filled with tuna cooked with onion, peppers and tomato, fried golden and served with a spicy onion and tomato sauce for dipping.
Where does Fataye (Mauritanian Tuna Turnovers with Tomato Sauce) come from?
Fataye (Mauritanian Tuna Turnovers with Tomato Sauce) is a Mauritanian dish from Nouakchott, Mauritania.
Can Fataye (Mauritanian Tuna Turnovers with Tomato Sauce) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Fataye (Mauritanian Tuna Turnovers with Tomato Sauce) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Fataye (Mauritanian Tuna Turnovers with Tomato Sauce) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Fataye (Mauritanian Tuna Turnovers with Tomato Sauce) take to make?
About 2 h 30 min in all: 45 minutes prep and 45 minutes cooking, plus 1 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 6.
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