Pumpkin Couscous with Pomegranate and Almonds, Maghrebi Style

La storia di questo piatto

Couscous is the old grain of the Maghreb, Berber in origin and written about as early as the thirteenth century, but this pumpkin-and-pomegranate version is a modern interpretation, not a recipe from any ancient kitchen. It borrows the region's pantry of cinnamon, cumin, ginger and turmeric and lets autumn speak through them.

Ingredienti

• 400 g Durum wheat semolina for couscous (precooked, medium grain)
• 600 g Pumpkin (flesh)
• 1 piece Onion
• 250 g Cooked chickpeas, well rinsed and drained
• 100 g Pomegranate seeds
• 40 g Sliced almonds
• 1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon Ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground turmeric
• 30 g Butter
• 5 tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
• 450 ml Lightly salted vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon Honey
• 1/2 bunch Fresh parsley
• 5 g Fine salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Black pepper

Preparazione

1. Preheat the conventional oven to 200°C. Start with the pumpkin: cut it into cubes of about 2 cm, all roughly the same size so they cook together. Put them in a large bowl with 2 tablespoons of oil, half of the cinnamon, the cumin, the ginger, the turmeric and 2 g of salt, and mix with your hands until each piece is glossy and fragrant with spices. Spread the cubes on a baking tray without overlapping them, otherwise they will steam instead of browning, and bake. Turn the cubes halfway through: they are ready after about 25 minutes, when the edges are caramelized and a fork slides in softly without resistance.
2. While the pumpkin roasts, heat the butter with 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat in a saucepan and add the finely chopped onion. Let it soften slowly, stirring occasionally: it should become translucent, sweet and fragrant, never dark, which takes about 6-7 minutes. Add the well-rinsed and drained chickpeas and toss for a minute to flavor them. Pour in the 450 ml of already warm vegetable broth, heat it just until it nearly simmers and turn off the heat immediately, without letting it boil: it only needs a brief infusion of flavor. Taste the broth and, only if needed, adjust with 1 g of salt: it will be the one seasoning the semolina.
3. Put the precooked (instant) medium-grain semolina in a wide bowl and pour over all the contents of the saucepan, onion, chickpeas and hot broth, without straining anything: this way the onion stays in the dish and the liquid (450 ml) is exactly right for 400 g of medium-grain precooked semolina. If the semolina is finer, set aside a ladle of hot water to add at the end of the rest only if the grains are still hard. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and the remaining 2 g of salt, cover with a plate and let it rest for 10 minutes without peeking: all the liquid must be absorbed. This rest coincides with the last minutes of cooking the pumpkin. Then oil your fingers with a little oil and fluff the semolina by lifting it and letting it fall back, as if raining the grains down, until it is loose and glossy, not sticky at all, distributing the onion and chickpeas evenly.
4. In a dry small pan, with no fat at all, toast the almonds over low heat, stirring often. They are ready when they smell of hazelnut and have a nice golden colour, which takes 3-4 minutes: do not step away from the pan, as they go from golden to burnt in an instant. Meanwhile, in a small cup, dissolve the honey with the lemon juice, mixing well: it is that note of freshness that will wake up the whole dish.
5. Add to the fluffed semolina, which already contains the chickpeas and onion, the roasted pumpkin with all the juices left in the tray (there is a lot of flavor in there, scrape well and waste nothing), the remaining cinnamon and the honey and lemon dressing. Mix gently, lifting from the bottom upward with a wide spoon, as one handles precious things, so the pumpkin cubes stay whole.
6. Taste before serving: the couscous should be round, sweet from the pumpkin but lively with lemon. If needed, adjust only with a splash more lemon, without adding salt. Plate in a dome shape, using a cup to shape it, and sprinkle with black pepper ground just before serving, the toasted almonds, the pomegranate seeds and the parsley torn by hand, which smells stronger than parsley cut with a knife. Serve immediately, piping hot.