Cous cous alla Trapanese

My sister, recently holed up in Trapani with ferries to the Egadi islands suspended due to adverse weather conditions, discovered a delight of the western (more arab influenced) part of Sicily. Cous cous alla Trapanese, is surely one of the best dishes around, unfortunately not present in this 'Greek' side of the island.
Here is a receipe I have translated:

For 6 people
1 kg. Mixed fish, shell fish and seafish, i.e seabass, clams mussels etc (according to availability)
500 gr. Mature Tomatos
2 cloves garlic
2 stalks of celery
2 carrots
1onion
1 handful of parsley & 1 bay leaf
1 pkt of saffron1 pinch of paprika
salt and pepper to taste
chilli pepper to taste
500 gr. cous cous

Clean the fish, crusteans and seafood. Put into a pot the fish heads and tails and any unused parts of the seafood, cover with water and add the bayleaf, some of the parsley, carrot and celery with half the onion, salt and pepper. Cook for 40mins and strain, keeping the broth separate. In a separate pan, the rest of the veg and condiments and herbs- its better to keep the garlic whole. Then add the fish, after shellfish Put HALF broth in with the ingredients. Add the tomatos, and leave to cook for 15 mins. Add any seafood, and any more salt needed, and continue to cook for 10mins.

At this point, you can get out your ‘couscoussiere’ if you’ve recently been on holiday to Morroco. If you haven’t, cook the cous cous in the normal way, adding olive oil and the rest of the broth (they expect you have the said couscoussiere,I can't guarantee what cous cous is like with fish broth added instead of water with normal cooking).
Its now ready.

Street scenes sunday morning

Is it a 'sicilian message'? It was just me and this fish on the beach this morning.




Then walking along, I saw this man selling artichokes from the back of his punto.
He also had one lone round of homemade cheese (just visible behind him) I asked if I could take his photo. He liked to be pictured with his produce patting his (ample) midrift. I suppose this is a rustic salespitch?

Lasagne al forno

Granny's 'sunday best' is legendary, and not just the pasta- check out those pearls!

1.She made the 'bolonaise' ragù before mass, and pre-cooked the pasta sheets at 8am this morning.

2.On my arrival, at 11, she makes the bechemel- but uses olive oil, not butter.

3.She then starts the layers of ham, provola and parmesan cheese, peas and bechemel

And before you can say 'Jackson Pollock' the signature style of pasta al forno is ready!

Pizza alla rustica

To make authentic sicilian pizza, you will need: Cold water, 1 kilo of 00 grain flour, 50g yeast for the dough, a tin of tomatos and some dried basil and garlic for the topping, and lavish amounts of provola cheese or mozzarella.


1.Firstly, Granny makes the dough, and leaves it to rise for about 30mins.

2.Meanwhile, she makes the sugo with toms, basil and garlic.




3.She then pummels the dough once it has risen and pours it into the pan.

4.Its then squeezed into shape and has chunks of provola liberally 'sprinkled';



5.The tomato sugo is smeared on top, the final touches of olive oil added and hey presto! its ready for the oven.

20 mins later it appears in its glorious- and rustic- entirety.