Easy Alternatives
August 14, 2003

It’s harvest high season for cooks with masses of tomatoes, corn, and herbs overflowing at the local farm stand. Personally, I am taking the minimalist approach and cooking very little these dog days of summer; with this kind of quality, there is little to do besides pass the sea salt and butter. Yet I’ve noticed my family has started to glaze over at my cheerful suggestions for another rerun of the arguably classic meal: fresh tomatoes, corn on the cob and burgers. To quell these ingrates I recently had to come up with something new- quick! Still fervently devoted to my tomato-corn repertoire, I created a short-cut version of risotto using fregola, a semolina couscous. You can buy this little treasure at Healthy Living, they call it Israeli couscous in their bulk section; I’ve also heard it called Italian couscous. Fregola is great as a substitute for rice or small pasta in any kind of hot dish or cold salad. A little background: semolina flour is a grainy, creamy yellow flour ground from durum or hard wheat; it has a higher protein and gluten content that flour produced from soft wheat. Couscous is semolina grain that has been rolled, dampened and coated with finer wheat flour. This enlarges the individual grains and keeps them separated during cooking. You’ve seen the quick cooking couscous for sale in boxes at the grocery store, fregola is simply a larger version. Treat it like any pasta, it cooks up in 8 minutes, and becomes tender little pearls that massage your mouth as you eat it. To make my “risotto” I sautéed 2 cups of chopped onion in a little olive oil for 5 minutes, then I added 3 cups of cooked fregola, 3-4 cups of last night’s leftover corn (shucked), 4 minced garlic cloves, and a handful of baby cherry tomatoes. I stirred it all together with a little white wine and 3T of excellent butter until lightly bubbling. I adjusted for seasoning with kosher salt and fresh pepper, added a handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese and a final flourish of freshly chopped herbs. The only complaint I got from my family was that I didn’t make enough! (7 cups)

Kim Dannies is a graduate of La Varenne Cooking School in France. She lives in Williston, VT with her husband, Jeff, and three college–aged daughters who come and go. ©2008