loveSicily

Making cous-cous for a great summer salad

Yesterday, ho "incocciato" cous-cous. "Incocciare" is the Sicilian word indicating the art of making cous-cous typical of North Africa and the Western part of Sicily.
It is not easy and it takes practice, but the result is so much better than the pre-cooked packages you find at the supermarket! Fluffy and tasteful, I could simply have it on its own.

The ingredients are very simple, just "semola", which is semolina made from durum wheat (careful, this is not semolina flour, the one we call "semola rimacinata di grano duro"), salted water and extra-virgin olive oil.
As for the tools, you need a large flat dish, the traditional ones are called "mafaradda", and a cous-cous pot. I prefer the terracotta traditional Tunisian steamer, but you can also use the french style aluminum couscous pot.
If you use the terracotta pot, you need to prepare some dough mixing water and flour just to seal the pot and the steamer.
If you watch the slide show it will be clearer as you can follow all the steps.

We enjoyed it in a simple salad with fresh cherry tomatoes, basil, fresh and dry oregano and top quality extra-virgin olive oil.

Written on
July 19, 2010
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