Grains and Pasta

Grains and pasta are the filling foods that form the background for the exuberant and vivid flavours of chillies and spices. Without their bland counterpoint, how could we even consider eating bitingly hot dishes?

And then there are the mild dishes that are lifted from stodgy boredom with their hit of hot: rice dishes, for example, or couscous.

Corn is a grain that takes readily to hot spicing. The simplicity of a shake of cayenne or mild chilli on grilled and buttered corn is nearly as good as a more complex corn dish such as tamales. Corn tortillas and salsa: is there a more perfect pairing? Hominy, too, is a type of com, and it also embraces chilli-spicing; the combination has spread from Latin America to Africa, where it has become the basis of many national dishes.