Polenta
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Polenta is a cornmeal mush popular in Italian, Savoy, Swiss, Austrian, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Corsican, Argentinean, Brazilian, and Mexican cuisine, and it is a traditional staple food throughout much of northern Italy.
Description
Polenta is made with either coarsely, medium or finely ground dried yellow or white cornmeal (ground maize), depending on the region and the texture desired.[link] As it is known today, polenta derives from earlier forms of grain mush (known as puls or pulmentum in Latin or more commonly as gruel or porridge) commonly eaten in Roman times and after. Early forms of polenta were made with such starches as the grain farro and chestnut flour, both of which are still used in small quantity today. When boiled, polenta has smooth creamy textures, caused by the presence of starch molecules dissolved into the water.Similarity with grits
Polenta is very similar to corn grits, a common dish in the cuisine of the Southern United States, with the difference that grits are usually made from coarsely ground hominy (see nixtamalization, which is the process of removing the hull from the kernel of the corn before grinding). When properly cooked, grits and polenta have similarly smooth textures, "grit" referring to the texture of the dried corn before cooking. Polenta's similarity to boiled maize dishes of Mexico, where both maize and hominy originate, may be a coincidence, as polenta is not a part of Spanish cuisine.Cooking and recipes
Formerly a peasant food, polenta has recently become quite upscale, with polenta dishes in restaurants and prepared polenta found in supermarkets commanding high prices. Many new recipes have given new life to an item which is, in essence, a fairly bland and common food, invigorating it with various cheeses or tomato sauces.Polenta is often cooked in a huge copper pot known in Italian as paiolo. In northern Italy there are many different ways to cook polenta. The most famous Lombard polenta dishes are polenta uncia, polenta concia, polenta e gorgonzola, and missultin e polenta; all are cooked with various cheeses and butter, except the last one, which is cooked with fish from Lake Como. It can also be cooked with porcini mushrooms, rapini, or other vegetables or meats, as in the Venetian poenta e osei, with little birds.
Polenta is traditionally a slowly cooked dish, sometimes taking an hour or longer to cook. This has led to a profusion of shortcuts in cooking technique, and at least one authority (Christopher Kimball of Cook's Illustrated magazine) has asserted that cooking polenta using modern ingredients should take only seven minutes. Nevertheless, instant and precooked polenta have become popular in Italy and elsewhere.
Cooked polenta can also be shaped into balls, patties, or sticks and fried in oil until it is golden brown and crispy; this variety of polenta is called crostini di polenta or polenta fritta.
Regional variations
- in Croatia, polenta is common on the Adriatic coast, where it is known as palenta or pura; in the northwestern part of Croatia, in and around Zagreb, it is known as žganci
- the Corsican variety is called pulenta, and it is made with sweet chestnut flour rather than cornmeal.
- the Serbian variety is called palenta
- the Romanian variety is called mămăligă
Interesting facts
- "Polentone" (or "pulentun" in dialect) meaning "polenta eater" (literally "big polenta") is a derogatory term sometimes used by Southern Italians to refer to Northern Italians.
- The overreliance on polenta as a staple food caused outbreaks of pellagra throughout much of Europe until the 20th century (maize lacks readily accessible niacin.)
- In South Africa, cornmeal mush is a staple food called mealie pap; in Zimbabwe it is called sadza and in Zambia it is nshima; elsewhere in Africa it may also be called fufu. In the Caribbean, similar dishes are cou-cou Barbados and funjie Virgin Islands.
- Cornmeal mush is called ugali in Swahili, and is a much appreciated food in East Africa.