Friscous. Salento-style couscous with turmeric

In recent years, there has been renewed attention toward crops that were at risk of disappearing forever in favor of others that were more profitable. It is precisely at the intersection between the recovery of biodiversity—understood as an archaeological excavation into the cultural identity of a civilization and the history of a people—and product innovation that Gaele srl has rooted its project. The company has recently launched Friscous® on the market: a fusion between perhaps the most representative element of Salento’s culinary tradition, the frisella, and couscous, a food typical of many countries bordering the Mediterranean and of certain areas of Sicily and Sardinia. The idea comes from Francesco Cantoro, a law graduate, who for about a decade has already been producing durum wheat varieties such as Cappelli and Saragolla in another family-owned business, while at the same time experimentally starting a small production of baked goods, following ancient processing techniques. “As many will remember,” explains Francesco Cantoro, “until a few decades ago in Lower Salento, bread was mostly mixed and worked within the home and baked in ovens fueled exclusively with olive wood. Bread-making was a true collective ritual that took place every two weeks and involved almost exclusively women, while men were busy working in the fields. After midnight, the flour was placed in the *madia* (kneading trough) and, once spread out, water, sourdough starter, and salt were added to the center, then worked with ancient and skilled gestures. Often in small towns it was the baker himself who, going from house to house, would start the bread-making process two or three hours before baking—the time needed for leavening.” Although it is difficult to fully revive these ancient bread-making techniques—born of a historical and social context that has now almost completely disappeared—the desire to pass on this ancient knowledge within a project that nonetheless does not renounce innovation gave rise to Friscous®. A completely Salento-style couscous, based on a selection of semolina and durum wheat flours. The wheat supply comes from in-house production or from crops directly controlled by the family farm in the countryside of Ruffano, while the semolina is sourced from selected mills in Puglia. The high quality of the ingredients—such as sourdough starter, re-milled durum wheat semolina with a low gluten index, and turmeric—together with slow leavening, meticulous artisanal dough processing, and baking in an olive-wood-fired oven, not only enhance the flavor and taste of Friscous®, but also make it particularly interesting from a nutritional point of view: low calorie intake and an almost total absence of cholesterol. Added to all this is the extraordinary antioxidant and anti-inflammatory power of turmeric. Friscous® is prepared simply by adding cold water, becoming in just a few seconds an excellent couscous—an ideal base for outstanding first or main courses, or for healthy and wholesome aperitifs. “The idea,” Cantoro explains further, “is to convey through Friscous® the flavors and knowledge of a territory extraordinarily rich in biodiversity such as Salento, drawing on quality crops and the collaboration of master bakers, the last custodians of ancient bread-making techniques born within the rural tradition.” We recommend enjoying Friscous® accompanied by a salad made with another Salento specialty: Torrepaduli celery. This variety of celery, which had practically disappeared, was cultivated in the early decades of the last century in the marshy countryside (*paduli*) of the Ruffano hamlet and has only recently been rediscovered and revitalized thanks to the intervention of the DiSTeBA Botanical Garden. A. Vincenti