Polenta

There are many different types of polenta, the three main ones are:

• Yellow, by far the most common one, made with corn semolina, is the most flexible to match;
• White, tipically from Veneto and Friuli, to eat with seafood, cod, or stockfish, really delicate taste, can also be matched with avocado-based food;
• Taragna, mixture of corn and buckwheat, typical of northern Lombardy, is by far the most savoury, it is usually matched to strong cheeses, goulasches, or spiced meats.

In italy there is a special cauldron to make this dish, made of copper that is used only for this purpose, even though any large enough pot can suffice.

Be careful: this recipe requires pretty much an hour of stirring. Engines to automate this procedure are available, but uncommon outside Italy. Quick polenta is available as well, but usually is not as good, and requires less water.

Ingredients for 4 hungry people  

• 360g polenta
• 2L water
• 8g kosher salt
• whisk

Procedure

1. Put the water on the stove;
2. Once the water is boiling add the kosher salt;
3. Slowly pour in the polenta, continuously mixing with a whisk, when getting to the end it will get denser, similar to a non-newtonian fluid;
4. Stir it with a wooden spoon, or polenta stirring machine, for one to two hours.
5. Serve warm, best practice would require on a wooden cutting board.

Tip: especially in the polenta taragna it is good practice to add 100g of butter and 150g of striped 6-12 month aged cheese, turning it into polenta concia.

Tip: the longer it is cooked, the softer and creamier. Don't forget to add more water for longer cooking times.

Tip: do not throw away leftover polenta! If you store it in a tupperware while it is still warm it will cool down into a brick-shaped shape and it will be perfect for polenta fritta (see ).