We were in Corsica for Easter about ten years ago and on Good Friday we found in the local shop that there was a biscuit which, like the Hot Crossed Bun, was special to the day. We discovered from the shopkeeper that this was a type of shortbread made with a combination of ordinary flour and semolina and flavoured with fennel seeds.

We bought some and tried them, and found them interesting, but a bit dry.

At the same time we had bought some early strawberries, and someone got the inspired idea of combining the strawberries with the shortbreads.
This worked beautifully, a match made in heaven.

There was something about the slightly dry granularity of the biscuit and the bite of fennel which had an delicious affinity with the ripe fruit.

When we got home to Waterford I tried various combinations until I came up with the following recipe. It then became a fixture on the restaurant menu while the strawberries were in season.

(It actually became such a fixture that it now has become a national dish in Corsica and features in several Corsican web sites,which reference my recipe!)

In the last few years Semolina flour has become quite difficult to get and I found the shortbread just wasn’t the same without it.
Yesterday I got a hankering after the original and tried an experiment.
Knowing that couscous was a coarse version of Semolina I decided to try making my own.
I put 250g of couscous into a food processor and tried that- no avail-after several minutes it looked just the same (its harder than it looks!).
I tipped the mixture into a liquidiser and there achieved some success.
After 5 mts of blending about half of the couscous had been turned into flour,so, I tipped it out and sifted out the amount needed for the shortbread.
Now if you want to try the recipe you have three options; make it with all plain flour, acquire some semolina from some source or other, or make like a mad obsessed chef and do it my way.
Whichever way do not leave out the fennel seeds, they are a very special part of the finished product.

175g (6 oz.) Butter
175g (6 oz.) Flour
90g (3 oz.) Semolina
90g (3 oz.) Caster Sugar
1 tsp. Fennel Seeds

225 ml (8 oz.) Cream
350g (12 oz.) Strawberries
2 tbs. Caster Sugar
You will need a 20cm.(8ins) round tart tin.

Make sure the butter is very cold and hard and cut it into small dice.
Mix the flour, sugar and semolina together.
Put in the diced butter and cut it together with a knife until the pieces of butter are very small.
Finish working lightly with your fingers until the mixture is dough like.
Using the knife cut in the fennel seeds then form the mixture into a rough ball.

(Or you can tip all these ingredients into a food processor and whizz until they form a ball.)

Now press it in an even layer into the bottom of a 12″ tart tin and prick with a fork.
(I find this mixture far to crumbly to roll out)

Bake this at Gas 1, 140C, 275 F. until it has coloured pale brown- about 45 mts.

”

Leave this in the tin until it cools and then turn it out carefully onto a plate.
Hull the strawberries and put 120g (4 oz).in a bowl.
Mash these with the sugar (and a little orange liqueur should you have some handy)
Whip the cream until stiff. Spoon this over the shortbread.
Put all the whole strawberries on the cream and then spoon over the mashed sweetened ones.

Yep, I know it looks a bit messy but it tastes marvellous.

(This should make enough for 4 to 6 )