The origin of this dish from the town of Carloforte on the island of San Pietro, off the south coast of Sardinia, is a curious one. It is a classic Arab couscous, but is based exclusively on vegetables (the North African couscous includes fish, chicken and mutton). The people of Carloforte are of ancient Ligurian stock who have retained their ethnic integrity over centuries of migration, although they have acquired different culinary traditions since their ancestors moved first to Tunisia in the fifteenth century, and subsequently to this island.