PEARL COUSCOUS WITH SAUTéED CHERRY TOMATOES

Pearl Couscous With Sautéed Cherry Tomatoes image

This is a simple dish with few ingredients and lots of flavor. The sauce, inspired by Melissa Clark's pasta with burst cherry tomatoes, is incredibly sweet and wraps itself around each nugget of couscous in the most delicious way. Cherry tomatoes break down in a hot pan in about five minutes, collapsing just enough to release some juice, which quickly thickens and caramelizes a bit. You want the tomatoes to stay partially intact so that you don't just get skins floating in sauce, but you need to cook them long enough to achieve the caramelized flavor that makes a tomato sauce sweet. You can cook the couscous a couple of days ahead and reheat in a pan with a little olive oil or in the microwave.

Provided by Martha Rose Shulman

Time 25m

Yield 4 servings

Number Of Ingredients 10

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups pearl couscous
2 quarts water
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced or puréed
1 pound (about 3 cups) cherry tomatoes, the sweetest you can find, cut in half
1/4 teaspoon sugar
Salt to taste
1 sprig basil
2 tablespoons, or more, slivered basil leaves

Steps:

Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat and add couscous. Toast couscous, shaking pan or stirring often, until it colors very lightly and smells aromatic and toasty, a bit like popcorn. Immediately add 2 quarts water and salt to taste (be generous, as if you are cooking pasta) and boil 10 minutes, until couscous is al dente; it should not be mushy, and there should still be plenty of water in the pot. Drain through a strainer and rinse with cold water. Tap strainer against sink to drain well, then return couscous to the pot, cover pot with a kitchen towel, and return lid. Let sit for 10 minutes while you make the sauce.
In a wide, heavy skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat and add garlic. As soon as it begins to sizzle and smell fragrant, usually in about 30 seconds, add cherry tomatoes and turn heat up to medium-high. Add sugar, salt and basil sprig and cook, stirring often, until tomatoes collapse and skins shrivel. Some of the tomato pulp will be in the pan, and should thicken and caramelize slightly, but there should still be pulp inside the skins. This should only take about 5 minutes. Turn off heat and remove basil sprig. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add a little fresh pepper if desired.
Add couscous to the pan along with slivered basil, stir together, and serve.

Nutrition Facts : @context http, Calories 301, UnsaturatedFat 6 grams, Carbohydrate 50 grams, Fat 7 grams, Fiber 4 grams, Protein 9 grams, SaturatedFat 1 gram, Sodium 1522 milligrams, Sugar 3 grams