There’s a saying in Italy that attests to the national significance of polenta: La polenta è utile per quattro cose: serve da minestra, serve da pane, sazia, e scalda le mani, " Polenta is good for four things: to make soup, to make bread, to fill you up, and to warm your hands.” In the south and middle of the country, Italians eat mainly pasta and bread, but in the north, they prefer rice and polenta. Polenta is so widespread there that northern Italians are sometimes called polentoni, “polenta-eaters.”
Polenta is traditionally prepared in a paiolo, a large copper pan tapered at the bottom, and stirred with a long wooden paddle called a tarai. In Italy, polenta is often eaten family-style from a large platter or wooden board, allowing guests to serve themselves at the table. Polenta, slow simmered ground corn, is eaten in many ways, as a main or side dish. It can be served simply, with just butter and cheese, or topped with sauce. It is often spread out to dry a bit and then baked, fried or grilled. There is a lovely painting by Pietro Longhi, 1740, in the Ca’ Rezzonico museum in Venice depicting just-cooked polenta being spread onto a linen cloth to dry.
There are many polenta festivals throughout Italy, such as the Sagra del Polentone in Tuscany during the last week of September and in the Piemontese town of Avigliana during May. The Festa della Polentata, a festival first celebrated in 1622, occurs each year on the last day of Carnival in the Emilia-Romagna town of Tossignano. Attendees watch polenta cook outdoors in huge copper cauldrons over wood fires, stirred by village volunteers wearing traditional yellow shirts and caps. Everyone receives free tastings of polenta seasoned with local sausage.
Polenta: History
The origins of polenta date to the ancient Roman puls—porridge dishes made from ground barley, fava beans, spelt, rye or buckwheat. Corn, a New World food, was first planted in Italy in the 1500s. Interestingly, another name for corn in Italian is granoturco, “Turkish grain,” a misnomer that came from the belief that the exotic foods from the New World actually came from Turkey. (That same misconception also accounts for the English name of America’s traditional Thanksgiving bird!) Corn grew best in northern Italy, where served boiled, it became a staple for the poor. But more elaborate dishes arose too, and polenta topped with rich sauces became popular with the wealthy.
Polenta: Variations
Polenta is served in many ways in Italy. Polenta concia – cornmeal cooked with butter and cheese and a specialty of Valle d’Aosta – is the most basic, and the selection of cheese varies from region to region. Polenta concia can be eaten as a first course (primo) or as a side dish for braised meats like the Valle d’Aosta’s famed beef stew, carbonade valdostana.
Polenta, yellow and white, is one of the Veneto’s classic foods, included in many traditional dishes such as baccalá alla vicentina, with creamy dried cod simmered in milk; seppie al nero alla veneziana, with black cuttlefish; and fegato alla veneziana, slices of crispy fried polenta served with liver and onions.
Polenta can be served with various toppings, like tomato meat sauce or a “white” sauce of sausage and mushrooms. In Abruzzo, especially in the province of Aquila during Lent, polenta is served with snail sauce or cooked in milk and served seasoned with oil, garlic and chili peppers.
Polenta is even used to make desserts such as pinza, a Veneto cornmeal and fruit cake; torta nicolotta, an aromatic cake seasoned with grappa and fennel seeds traditionally made with leftover polenta; and brustengolo, an apple-walnut polenta pudding popular in Umbria, especially in the Perugia province. Frittelle di polenta – fried rounds of polenta sweetened with sugar, raisins and chocolate – are a popular treat during Carnival time. There’s even a non-polenta dessert that’s made to look like polenta! Polenta e osei, “polenta with birds,” is a cake filled with apricot preserves covered in yellow marzipan, so it resembles a bowl of polenta. It’s topped with candied or chocolate birds to mimic a traditional quail dish traditionally served over polenta.