Couscous Just Like the French Eat

On a recent trip to France, I wandered around feeling displaced until I followed a herd of Parisians into a neighborhood charcuterie. The selection of ready-made foods--salads, quiche, terrines, and pates--was staggering, and I would have had a much harder time choosing if not for one thing: my French is lousy, and I could pronounce only a few dishes well enough to have my order understood. One of them was couscous, prepared as follows, with olives, raisins, and three types of peppers.

COUSCOUS PROVENCAL

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 small white onion, coarsely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed and minced

1 sweet red pepper, roasted, peeled, and chopped

1 yellow pepper, roasted, peeled, and chopped

1 orange pepper, roasted, peeled, and chopped

6 medium pitted black olives, sliced

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup canned or freshly cooked garbanzo beans

Salt Freshly ground pepper

3/4 cup raw couscous

Heat olive oil in wide saucepan and saute onion and garlic until tender and translucent. Add roasted peppers and saute, stirring often, 20 minutes.

Stir in olives, raisins, garbanzo beans and salt and pepper to taste. Add 1 cup water, cover and bring to boil. Stir in couscous, cover, and bring to second boil.

Turn off heat and let stand 10 minutes. Fluff with fork before serving. Makes 4 to 6 side dish servings.

Note: Simple way to roast and peel peppers: split in half lengthwise, place on broiling sheet and broil until skin is charred. Transfer from sheet to paper bag and place in freezer 10 to 15 minutes. Skins should peel away easily.