table talk / By Simona Carini

Polenta: Variations on a Theme

Another variation entails baking four peeled medium-size carrots and three red beets (cut into quarters), all lightly sprayed with olive oil, at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. I start roasting the vegetables about 15 minutes before I start the polenta, so I have time to cut the vegetables into bite-size pieces before the polenta is ready. I stir in the vegetables after adding the cheese. The result is quite colorful.

I store leftover polenta in a cubic container so that it is then easy to cut regularly shaped slices, which can then be grilled or reheated in an oiled pan, or baked (after you remove the pan lids from your oven).

Grilled polenta is featured in the menu of Ferndale restaurant Curley’s Grill, as supporting base for a “portabella mushroom tower” or topped with marinara sauce and sausage. The pairing of polenta with mushroom is my favorite combination.

In Northern Italy, polenta is made with cheese and butter and usually served as a side dish to a meat stew. The Arcata restaurant La Trattoriafollows this delightful tradition offering polenta with baked rabbit or chicken, or with beef goulash.

What if you do not have 45 minutes to meditate over a pot of bubbling polenta? Option 1 is to use instant polenta. I tasted it once and do not want to encore the experience. Food that carries the modifier “instant” in front is almost always a mockery of the real thing, and I avoid it. The time-saving comes at the expense of flavor and texture, a price I am never willing to pay. When I make polenta for my husband and me, I have a good amount of leftovers, which become my idea of instant polenta.

Option 2 is to use the packaged cooked polenta available in many grocery stores. I have never tried it and therefore I shall suspend my judgment.

Option 3 is what I would recommend: Cook something else, and make an appointment with yourself for a day in the near future when you will have enough time to prepare polenta. On that day you will spend a pleasant hour watching the slow making of this “ageless culinary lord” and then you will sit down to a meal that will warm both your body and your spirit.

Simona Carini is a native of Italy who splits her time between Trinidad and Berkeley.

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