Couscous

Make a hearty, vegetarian, tagine-inspired dinner in just 20 minutes with only pantry ingredients.

A warming stew of quick-cooking lentils, pearled couscous, and canned chickpeas topped with tangy lime yogurt, crunchy sliced almonds, and fresh herbs.

This couscous salad is just right for a late summer barbecue.

This is a great one for midweek as it takes no more than 20 minutes from slicing the leeks to serving the finished dish, but it is good enough for weekends as well-filling, fresh and very tasty.

This is a mostly hands-off dinner that only needs a salad of assertive greens as accompaniment. The chicken gets a head start in the oven, but then finishes up by sharing its pan with the couscous. This way, the pasta laps up flavor from the meat, while getting crispy on top, and in turn, the steam coming up from the couscous keeps the chicken incredibly juicy. An intense slurry of anchovies, garlic, and lemon makes up most of the piquant dressing, with bursts of contrasting sweetness from the raisins. You'll want a large baking pan that's not much deeper than 2 inches. Pyrex and ceramic have the potential to crack when the liquids are added during roasting, so it's best to avoid them this time. The baking dish I use is enameled metal and is 15 inches long, 11 1/2 inches wide, and with a depth of 1.5 inches, but a 13-inch paella pan would be fine. Keep in mind that if the pan is too deep, the sides of the chicken won't brown; if too small, there won't be a lovely crust on the couscous; if too large, the liquid will evaporate before everything is cooked. It's the Goldilocks of baked suppers, but when it's right, it's perfect.

Flavor fish fillets with the Middle Eastern spice mix za’atar and then serve over couscous and sautéed greens for a totally satisfying 22-minute meal.

Make a double batch of the almond-currant topping, then use it as a crunchy finish for salads and grain dishes. Though Admony calls for whole-wheat couscous, plain works just as well.

Couscous Israélien au Citron et aux Pistaches Every year in Menton, a city near Nice that's on the border of Italy, there's a festival celebrating the famed Menton lemons. Plump and irregularly shaped, they're seasonally available in Paris markets, with their leaves still attached. They are prized by chefs and cooks for their intense lemony flavor (without the harshness of commercial lemons), and their not-too-bitter pith, which makes them perfect for preserving. This nutty, lemony salad makes good use of preserved lemons, which you can easily buy or make yourself (see my website for a recipe). I keep a jar on hand at all times. They take a few weeks to mellow and soften, so don't save making them for the last minute. Their flavor is incomparable, and a jar will last for months in your refrigerator. Chopped-up bits can be tossed with olives for a quick apéro, and they also add an assertive citrus flavor to this dish made with pistachios and Israeli couscous. Israeli couscous are little pearls of pasta, elsewhere called pastina, which means "little pasta," and when toasted it's known as fregola sarda. Since they have more substance, I think they hold up a little better to North African-style braised meats, like the lamb shank tagine, than traditional couscous. (Orzo is a good substitute for the Israeli couscous.) To change things around a bit, you can vary the dried fruit or swap in fresh mint or cilantro for the parsley. Another nut, such as toasted hazelnuts or almonds or even pine nuts, could be used in place of the pistachios.

A double boost of basil, from the pesto and the fresh leaves, gives this whole wheat couscous a flavor lift. It's perfect for busy weeknights when you are starving for quick and easy carbs. Home-cooked chickpeas taste best, but canned chickpeas work fine when you're in a rush. And pesto from a jar is a perfectly good replacement for homemade. Serve next to sautéed fish or chicken.