Israeli Couscous in the Style of Risotto

A lot of chefs, myself included, stretch their culinary vocabulary by learning classic techniques and then extending those techniques to non-traditional ingredients. For me, having learned to make risotto in my teens (more than 40 years ago now!), I have always loved the risotto technique and have extended it to many other ingredients. I once taught a series of cooking classes examining the classic technique for risotto and extending it to barley, farro, quinoa, and orzo.

Israeli Couscous in the Style of Risotto
Poached Eggs and Salsa Verde for Garnish

Recently, Ann ordered some Israeli couscous (because it's a favorite pasta and is not readily available in our markets) and that has seen me making couscous just like I would risotto, mainly for the simplicity of a one-pan meal, truth be told. Post-restaurant, I have to wash the dishes myself!

First Liquid Addition

Cooking Off the Final Liquid Addition

The classic technique is three-fold: sauté the onion and rice in fat, add the liquid in small additions until the rice is done (a bit of wine followed by stock), and finally mantecare, adding butter and Parmesan to finish the dish.

I extended this technique to my clean-out-the-refrigerator couscous. First, I sautéed my soffrito of onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, dried basil, sweet peppers, and asparagus slivers to evaporate some of the moisture in the vegetables. Then I added and toasted the couscous. Next, in went the liquid, water in this case because I already had a lot of flavor in the soffrito. To gild the lily, I could have used an aromatic saffron stock.

Once the pasta was just cooked after a few small additions of water, I then finished it à la true risotto with both fat and cheese. For fat, I made a quick pimentón aїoli and for cheese, I used grated cotija from Mexico.

To add protein to the dish, I poached eggs and put them on top, along with some salsa verde and cilantro for garnish. What is better than stirring egg yolk into a dish?