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A staple of Italian cooking unveiled Blessed Polenta!
[Dolores Maria Jimenez]
This maize meal puree - in an endless assortment of local varities - has become one of the staples in the diet of many peasant cultures all over Italy, including Tuscan cooking. Still, we should remember that corn was unknown here until comparatively recent times. Well, I mean recent by European standards: in fact corn was brought back from America in one of the early expeditions after Columbus discovered it, although some claim it may have been known in Venice through its business relations with Eastern countries even earlier than that.
But before learning how this dish is served, let's go through a quick preparation practice: you need boiling hot salted water and corn meal (known here as farina gialla, yellow meal). Mix them using a whisk to avoid lumps, then boil it while stirring all the time with a strong wooden spoon with a long handle. The pot must be tall and should have a steady handle, because you will need to apply much strength to keep stirring as the preparation becomes thicker and thicker. The longer you boil it, the better. Once ready, empty the contents onto a wooden board or plate, let it cool and settle, add sauce and serve it.
Polenta is most popular in the reagions of Northern Italy as a substitute for bread and to accompany meats, cheese or sauces. In Tuscany it is often fried in small square slices that can be eaten as is or topped with sauce, often a mushroom sauce (in the restaurant menu look for crostini di polenta ai funghi in the "antipasti" section).
There is another tasty local variant you might like to try; it's called polenta alla mugellana (Mugello is the mountaineous area just North of Florence) and it's a very rich main meal, because the polenta mix has added beans, chickpeas, winter cabbage, pancetta and olive oil in varying quantities.
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