MONITOR:Polenta doesn't have much flavour, until you add copious amounts of butter and cheese . . .
I’VE JUST WATCHED a field of maize being harvested. The combine harvester climbed the steeply sloped Italian hillside with ease, somehow ripping off the corn heads and leaving behind giant-sized stubble. Now that it’s the end of summer, it’s time to start thinking of robust cooking. Polenta, a food that I struggled to get my head around until recently, is a winter staple to celebrate with – its earthy, comforting texture and flavour can provide a sound base for richer food.
Polenta arrived from the Americas at the beginning of the 16th century. It became an instant hit in northern Italy. Quite why, nobody seems to know, but there are paintings of vast feasts and celebrations of this basic food being partnered with cheese and mushrooms, rich beef stews and robust casseroles. By then, it was already used widely in South America, mostly as a porridge base. It turns up later in North America in the form of grits, cakes and breads.
Devotees, and there are many, swear by traditional polenta, which takes about 40 minutes to cook. Polenta is thick and sticky. It requires constant stirring and a heavy pot. Quick-cook pre-steamed polenta is the more common form, however, and doesn’t take long at all. As to the difference, having eaten the real thing on a number of occasions, it is hard to notice what precisely the extra effort and time brings.
What you get from both is a flavour that is mealy, satisfying, but basic. Careful seasoning is required, but even then excitement is several additional ingredients away. Because the truth is, as with potatoes, polenta’s success lies in what goes on or in it. I’m not knocking a good spud, but lashings of butter are undoubtedly the making of even the most delicious specimen.
Polenta can be served in two basic ways, either soft as a mash, or left to harden into a cake and grilled or pan fried. It is often turned into cake, frequently combined with almonds, and served with fresh or stewed fruit to form a pudding. It makes rather a good breakfast food too, when combined with yogurt and fruit.
Purists of savoury polenta will argue for water and salt, but there is much to be said for meat stock and or milk, both add flavour, which is welcome in something so basic. Then the fun starts; it plays host to so many more powerful flavours with ease.
If you are partnering a stew or even pot-roasted meat, soft polenta comes into its own with a generous slick of butter and Parmesan added at the end for a thick, rich result. Blue cheese works well, Cashel Blue is a firm favourite. Cream, too, is to be encouraged, the thicker and richer the better.
Grilled or pan-fried polenta is made by making a firm version of soft polenta, which is then allowed to harden, cut into slices and then cooked a second time. The soft, molten mass can be poured from the pot straight onto a wooden board, where it will firm up in a matter of minutes. Serve grilled or fried slices topped with grilled chicken or fish and lots of well-dressed salad leaves and strong flavourings such as sun-dried tomatoes, capers and chilli. For a vegetarian lasagne, it can be sliced thinly and layered with bechamel, Parmesan and mushrooms. For the more traditional, meat version, it can be partnered with ragu.