What is the flavor of winter for you?
I had identified my autumn flavor in roastes chestnuts with new red wine
http://gigliocooking.blogspot.com/2018/10/taste-of-fall.html
that of spring with freshly picked fava beans, tender and sweet, with pecorino marzolino (sheep milk cheese)
http://gigliocooking.blogspot.com/2018/05/taste-of-spring.html
the taste of summer for me is that of sea urchins:
http://gigliocooking.blogspot.com/2018/05/taste-of-summer.html
I really missed my taste of winter to confess. But I have it. Polenta with sausages. Steaming, juicy, tasty, full. Yes a nice polenta.
Last year, actually two years ago, a friend invited us home. It was December. It was cold. We were amazed because in the last few years December has never been cold. In Pistoia the air was cold and penetrating, there was that sleet that wets the bones and there was haze.
He made polenta with meat sauce and sausages. He served it to us in what she told us was the typical way it should be served in Northern Italy. He spilled the polenta directly onto the tablecloth, spreading it in a thin layer. He poured the steaming sauce over it, then a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Each of us diners began to eat with their own fork, straight from the tablecloth.
In Friuli, the polenta, which comes from the cauldron, is turned over onto a large cutting board. It is allowed to thicken for a few minutes and then is cut with a thread held in tension between the fingers.
My mother, on the other hand, served polenta like this: she took the steaming and soft polenta with a spoon. She called this dish “polenta gnocchi”, although the gnocchi were too large to eat in one bite. She used to call it this to say because polenta was not turned upside down in the whole shape of a large loaf or a large dome. She made layers, alternating with the sauce of sausages and Parmesan.
The quality of the polenta is fundamental: instant corn meal are fine, but you want to put with a grain with an ancient seed, never modified, whole, cooked for a long time until it becomes smooth and with a flavor …. the taste of winter.
Corn with names like spinot, scaiolo, storo, found and cultivated with love by the Corn Girl.
http://gigliocooking.blogspot.com/2019/12/la-ragazza-del-mais.html
Of course, you have to go looking for them and then you have to cook them, with patience, without haste.
Here’s how to make a Polenta that really tastes like winter
POLENTA
(basic recipe)
Ingredients for 4:
350 gr (12 Oz) corn meal
1 ¼ Lt (5 cups) water
salt
Put the water on the fire in a “cauldron” (large copper pot). Bring to a boil and, just before the first “bubbles” , add the salt: about 12 grams. Begin to gradually drop the cornmeal, stirring with a whisk to avoid lumps.
When the polenta flour is well mixed, change the whisk with a wooden spoon (so as not to scrape the pan) and simmer, stirring occasionally, until ready
Traditional polenta would take around 40-50 minutes.
The pre-cooked polenta is ready in 5-8 minutes.
Keep a smal pot full of boiling water on the next stove and add hot water if the porridge gets too dry.
The polenta is ready when it comes easily from the edges of the pan.
Pour it onto a large (wooden) cutting board.
Serve it hot.
Polenta can be cooled, sliced and cooked further, grilled
SAUSAGE SAUCE
Ingredients for 4 people:
400 gr (14 oz) pork sausages
30 gr ( 1oz) extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove
half onion
1 bay leaf
500 gr ( 1,1 Lb) canned tomatoes
½glass red wine
salt
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Prick the sausages and immerse them in boiling water for a few minutes. It will help eliminate excess fat.
Mince garlic and onion.
Sauté the onion in the oil, then add the garlic and after a minute, add the peeled and crumbled sausage with your hands. Cook for 5 minutes and dilute with the wine. Let it evaporate. Add the pureed tomatoes and the bay leaf. Cook about half an hour over medium heat. Season with salt.
You decide how to serve it: directly on the tablecloth, overturned in a large bowl and then on the cutting board to give it a dome shape; or directly on the cutting board, to be able to cut it with a wire, or in a large concave tray, in “gnocchi” style, alternating layers of polenta and sauce.
Marcella Ansaldo