Pistachio couscous with milk cream, lavender and celery water sorbet
«Sicilian cuisine is very similar to the history of Sherazade. Where one story ends, another begins. This is the recipe for a sweet cous cous where each ingredient represents a place near and far that concerns us, a piece of our history.
«I put two scoops of ice cream in the dish – of lavender and celery water – a tribute to Persia. Celery is a natural salt, a subtle seasoning.
Then I add some pistachio cous cous, recalling the dish made by the cloister nuns of the Monastery of Santo Spirito in Agrigento. My cous cous, however, contains only durum wheat semolina.
«To get the same visual effect, I crumbled some sponge cake, passing it in a sieve with large holes. Then, the mixing with the fingers (“incocciato” in dialect), adding water scented with rose, elderberry and jasmine, plus a few sprigs of fresh lemongrass with its flowers.
«Tasting this dish, you will instantly find yourself in one of the gardens that perfume the Island, of which the Arab and Norman poets sang».
Note
«Fantastic, these nuns! There is a freshness and a wisdom in their cooking that stuns, enchants and comforts you with sweetness. All of the fears and challenges of the world vanish».