Information About

Polenta




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 made with either coarsely, medium, or finely ground dried yellow or white , with the difference that grits are made from coarsely ground Corn , hull and all (most popularly from corn which has been processed into Hominy , making it grittier yet). There are many different types of polenta, such as basic or soft polenta.

Regional varieties:
  • in Croatia, it is common on the Adriatic coast, where it is known as ''palenta'' or ''pura''; in NW 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 Serbia n variety is called ''palenta''

  • the Romania n variety is called ''mămăligă''


Polenta is often cooked in a huge copper pot called a ''paiolo'' in Italian . 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 Bird s.

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.


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 .

  • Cornmeal mush is called Ugali in Swahili , and is a much appreciated food in East Africa .



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