Polenta: Italian Corn Meal Mush
Polenta is a coarse ground cornmeal and generally
made into a mush-like porridge.
Polenta is to the Italians, and especially to the Venetians, what
potatoes is to the Irish, Germans and Americans, and rice to the Japanese.
Among our favorite foods, we love polenta's
versatility and use it in every course of the meal from antipasto to dessert. It
can be served for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in between. As a mush
polenta can be made with water, stock or milk. The mush is eaten soft, the
consistency of hot cereal, or chilled and cut into slices which are then baked,
broiled or fried. It is especially good with game birds, ragouts and stews - any
dish where the polenta can absorb the meat juices or sauce.
Polenta can be grilled, fried, and ladled; it works well with meat,
poultry, and fish; it can be enriched by cream, butter, and cheese, or lightened
with a little chicken broth. The possibilities are endless, and all make a
considerably inexpensive and nourishing meal. Each region of Italy have its own
versions of polenta, but we shall deal only with those of Venice and
surrounding regions, including Istria.
Polenta Before Corn
|
Circa 1740 - "La polenta" by Pietro
Longhi. |
Before corn came to Europe, there was polenta and
before polenta, there was puls and
pulmentum, Roman armies had a porridge that was similar to polenta,
made with millet, chestnut flour, chickpea flour, roasted barley, buckwheat and
other grains. Pulmentum was carried by soldiers and made into mush or a
hardened cake and the preparation was virtually identical to polenta,
with the mixture of ground grain and water was frequently flavored and fortified
with milk, cheese, and meats or their sauces. The Greeks, who knew it as
poltos, made it with spelt flour, a larger and harder grain than our
wheat, also known as
farro.
Two centuries before the arrival of corn,
buckwheat - known as grano saraceno in Italy -- made its way to Europe,
introduced by the Saracens, who brought it from central Asia. It was prepared in
very much the same way as chestnut flour and barley, and as corn would be.
Called both
polenta nera and polenta taragna, it remains popular in certain
regions of Italy today, Tuscany among them, and the grain is sometimes added to
cornmeal for an additional element of flavor, as in Bergamo. In virtually every
culture the world around, you will find a similar comfort food, a porridge or
pudding or gruel, served soft or allowed to harden, made of the common grain of
the land.
When corn was introduced to Italy in the 17th
century it was readily adopted for a similar porridge, especially in the
mountainous areas where wheat was less profitable to grow. Today it is prevalent
throughout Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, and the Fruili. Polenta grains come in a
variety of coarseness and color; white polenta is a specialty of the Veneto.
This dish is so commonly used in Venice that it is impossible to find a recipe
for polenta, experts said. Everyone knows how to make it without
measuring anything; boil the water, put in some salt, and add enough meal. And
the Venetians are right, because this is the best way to make polenta.
Throughout
Northern Italy, the ingredients to make polenta vary only slightly. In
some regions the yellow cornmeal used is very finely ground, while in other
regions it is coarse, and in some others two kinds of polenta are
blended. Sometimes yellow or white cornmeal mixed with buckwheat is used, and
sometimes with a bit of semolina. The procedures employed to prepare polenta
do not vary much. What varies is the thickness of the final product, according
to how and with what polenta is going to be served. In order to maximize
the taste, a harmonious balance in texture between polenta and other
ingredients is necessary.
It is desirable to use coarsely ground polenta
to make a rather thick polenta, while the finely ground type is more
suitable for a thinner polenta. Medium ground cornmeal is suitable for
most preparations. Whatever kind of polenta is used, be sure that it is
dry and without lumps. It should be recently ground; if stored for a long time,
the polenta may taste bitter.
Basic tools and ingredients For
each pound of polenta use 2 quarts of water and an ounce of salt. This
ratio applies to a soft polenta, which are always served with a
condiment or with other ingredients added. If polenta is to be used
baked, grilled or instead of bread, use a 3 to 1 ratio of water to polenta,
use the same amount of salt. The problem is that with oen package the ratio may
work perfectly while a second package may need more or less water. So, it is
best to do it the Venetian way, with is to say eyeball it.
The tools for making polenta, other than a strong arm and a weak brain,
are a pot with sloping sides, a wooden paddle or spoon for mixing the cooking
polenta, and a circular piece of wood or board. You may also a wire wisk for
stirring the corn meal while you are inserting into the pot. The rest of the
stirring is done with the wooden paddle or spoon.
Sloping
sides on the pot make it easier to stir the polenta.
The best kind of pot in which to cook polenta is the classic paiolo,
made of copper without a tin lining, and with a convex bottom. For the weak of
arm, there even exists an electric paiolo!
The piece of wood serves as a place to put the polenta when it is cooked,
as a place for it to cool, and as a cutting board. The board normally has a
handle and the handle a hole in it. The hole is there for two reasons: one, so
that the board may be hung up on a peg of nail, and two, a place to attach a
string. The string is used to cut the polenta by drawing it down across the
board, thereby slicing the polenta.
Cooking procedures
The paiolo should only be half full with water; otherwise, in adding the
cornmeal the water might overflow. The water should be properly salted in the
beginning in order to avoid having to add either salt or water later in the
cooking process.
Bring the salted water to a boil, then lower the
heat (be careful, because in the beginning while adding cornmeal, boiling water
might easily splash) and add the coarsely ground cornmeal, little by little,
stirring constantly to prevent lumps from forming. If you use finely ground
cornmeal the danger of lumping is much greater [see note].
Do not pour directly from the container, but use your hands, pouring a handful
at time. For this initial stirring, a wire whip works best, but after all the
cornmeal has been blended into the pot, change to a wooden spoon (or tarello).
Increase the heat, and let cook for 40-50 minutes, stirring constantly. While
cooking, the heat should be high, to cause bubbles to rise and burst on the
surface. While stirring separate the polenta from the sides of the pot
and from the bottom toward the top. When ready, the polenta comes away
easily from the sides of the pot. It can be served hot immediately with the
desired condiment, or it may be poured out of the paiolo onto a wooden
board. To do so, smooth the surface of the polenta and with a brisk
move, turn the paiolo upside down. The
polenta will easily come away from the paiolo. Cut with a wooden knife
and serve. polenta
is often cut with a piece of thick string stretched tightly between two hands.
Note: polenta made with finely ground
cornmeal forms lumps easily. In order to avoid this, add a fifth of the cornmeal
to the salted water while it is still cold, mixing with a whisk. Once the
cornmeal is blended with the water, cover, in order to prevent boiling
polenta from splashing, and let boil for 10 minutes. Then, stirring
constantly, add the remaining cornmeal following the procedures described in
basic method.
How to serve polenta
Polenta is eaten with stews, game, cooked sausage, calf's liver Venetian
style, and almost anything else where there might be some sauce to soak up.
Polenta may be eaten immediately after it is made, or it can be eaten
cold. When cold, it can be cut into slices and charcoal-broiled; or it can be
fried. One suggestion it to use a special frying pan that has ridges spaced
about an inch apart, this to make it seem that it has been charcoal-broiled.
Polenta is often served as a starch instead of bread, especially in rural
and mountain areas, together with tiny deep-fried fish, broiled cotechino,
salami, or cheese. In this case it is not sauced but is served solely as a
complement to meat, game and fish dishes cooked in sauces or gravies.
Polenta is also served with cheese (gorgonzola, toma, fontina) or in
bowls with cold milk. It is delicious when served very hot, dotted with fresh
butter and sprinkled with parmigiano. It is good when sliced, arranged in layers
in a baking dish, covered with wedges of parmigiano, sprinkled with melted
butter and baked for a few minutes. You may add thinly sliced white truffles, if
in season. Polenta leftovers may be sliced and fried in oil or lightly
grilled over charcoal, then served either as a side dish or, better yet, covered
with lard minced with parsley and garlic. Polenta
may also be prepared by cooking it with other ingredients like beans, cabbage,
spinach, and potatoes. In this case, polenta is dotted with butter or
browned lard, sprinkled with parmigiano, and thus served as a complete meal.
Sources:
- H.F. Bruning, Jr. and Cav. Umberto Bullo,
Venetian Cooking, 200 Authentic Recipes Adapted for American Cooks,
Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. (New York, 1973)
- Michele Anna Jordan, Polenta, Broadway
Books (1997)
- Polenta - Cornmeal -
https://www.milioni.com/Polenta/default1.htm
- ItalianMade.com - Polenta -
https://www.italianmade.com/recipes/recipe421.cfm
- https://www.italiancookingandliving.com/food/ingredients/polenta.html
|