I feel a bit guilty about the lack of use of my Jamie Oliver Italy recipe book. I keep taking it off the shelf and looking at the recipes and the beautiful photography, but then rarely get round to cooking from it. The recipes on the whole look like they would take more time to make than I generally have on a weekday evening. Although they also sound like they'd be worth the effort.
Nonna Giusy's Fish with Couscous was on the menu for us on bank holiday monday. I felt that with a little more time available it was the ideal time to delve into the book.
The method was an interesting one - you mix the couscous with finely chopped onion, garlic and parsley and then steam it for half an hour before mixing in some tomato sauce (made while the couscous steams) and putting it in the oven on a very low heat (80C max) to keep the couscous warm while it absorbs the tomato sauce. It was delicious cooked that way.
We used gilt-head bream as our fish (I had to gut it! Don't think I've ever had to gut my fish before. Chop the heads off, yes, but not scoop out its insides. Fortunately I'm not overly squeemish). This was poached in the tomato sauce, then I skinned and de-boned it, flaked the flesh into big chunks and mixed it back into the remaining tomato sauce.
Dan and I thought that a handful of raisins would go well in this recipe. Also, we thought chorizo and prawns could be substituted for the fish to good effect. The dish does take over an hour to prepare, but it is simple to do and, as always with tomato based recipes, the long slow cooking makes it rich and adds a wonderful depth to the flavour.
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