No, I haven’t lost my mind. Or perhaps I have. Maybe I have found my true calling as a polenta hat top model. I surely know how to rock a polenta hat, even if I am otherwise sorely lacking in the style department. Yesterday we were making polenta with Nonna Rita, my friend Cinzia’s 80 […]
Tag Archives | polenta
Crispy fried mozzarella balls (gluten free)
This year I discovered that fried food is tasty. Yes, apparently I hadn’t heard the news. I never really liked fried foods before and wasn’t much interested in them. But then my husband had me taste fried mozzarella balls and I saw the light! We used to get them from the frozen food section of […]
Yes, your polenta should be be that thick!
Whenever I make polenta with Americans I often hear the same question…. “Isn’t it done yet? It looks too thick!” People usually say this when the polenta still needs to cook another 45 minutes or so. And here’s the answer: “It ain’t done… it shouldn’t be that thick, it should be thicker!” Polenta isn’t grits. […]
Black Polenta Squares with Gorgonzola and Caramelized Onions
This week we held our rustic fire roasted polenta gathering class here in Asheville, North Carolina at the Log Cabin Cooking School, and it was a blast and a hoot all rolled together. We fired up the camp fire and hauled a relatively lightweight little wood cookstove from the 1800’s out there, too. We ate […]
Have some sausage: polenta con salsiccia
Where I live in Valle d’Aosta, Italy, polenta con salsiccia is the ‘go-to’ way of preparing polenta. It is basically Italian sausage cooked in a tomato sauce and eaten with polenta. This dish is good, I mean really good. Good enough that I’ve been sneaking occasional bites of it, and I’ve been a strict vegetarian […]
Polenta: The Day After
If you are like me, you always make far too much polenta. The bag of polenta meal seems so small, and it can’t possibly be enough to feed everyone, right? Ok, I’ll add just a little bit more. Wrong. That little bag of polenta can feed 10 people. Which means I still have enough polenta […]
Polenta Ostenga con Gamberetti… Italian Shrimp & Grits!
I wrote my last post, declaring my love affair with spring, a mite too soon. Yesterday I woke up to a snow storm. Needless to say, it made me quite disgruntled. In need of something to warm ourselves up from the unexpected winter blast, we held an impromptu polenta party last night. There is nothing […]
A Polenta Rainbow
Last weekend was my time to shine as an American in Italy. On Friday, I played fiddle in a blues concert dedicated to Mississippi John Hurt-particularly strange given that I’m not a blues musician- , on Sunday I taught an American pie making class to a bunch of Italians (they loved it), and then my […]
A Polenta Gathering
Polenta, I love you. Yes, I know that I declare my undying love for every food I write about. It is because there is so much great food in the world. But polenta holds a special place in my heart (and stomach). Before I moved here, I thought polenta was the stuff that came in […]
