Ferrero

On our shelves Ferrero is a couscous label, and the range we carry is built around medium-grain couscous. Couscous is not a grain in its own right: it is semolina milled from durum wheat, rolled into small pellets, steamed and dried, so that at home it needs only hot liquid and a few minutes to swell. Medium grain sits between the fine couscous used for sweet dishes and the larger pearl styles sold for stews.

You will find the Ferrero packs in our couscous collection, which belongs to the wider semolina and couscous shelf. There is a smaller pack for occasional cooking and a larger bag for households that eat couscous every week, both the same medium grade, so a recipe behaves the same whichever one you pick up.

Couscous comes from the cooking of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, where it is steamed over a simmering stew in a couscoussier and brought to the table on a shared platter. In a British kitchen it is more often soaked: pour over an equal volume of boiling stock or salted water, cover for five minutes, then fork through butter or olive oil. Serve it hot under a lamb or chickpea tagine, with harissa chicken, or cooled and tossed with herbs, cucumber, lemon and pomegranate. Some cooks also use it for a quick savoury upma with mustard seeds and curry leaves.

Because it is already cooked and dried, opened couscous keeps for months in a sealed jar kept away from the steam of the hob. For a coarser wheat with a different bite, compare it with our sooji and rava or the broken wheat used for dalia.