In Celebration of Polenta

Polenta is a staple food of Northern Italy that does not always get the same recognition as pasta and pizza. Northern Italians subsisted on little more than polenta for centuries. In this way, polenta is truly an Italian national dish and may have a history much more ancient than either pizza or pasta. As it is known today, polenta derives from earlier forms of grain mush commonly eaten since Roman times. Before the introduction of corn from the New World in the 16th century, polenta was made with such starchy ingredients as farro, chestnut flour, millet, spelt, or chickpeas.
 

History of Polenta

In Roman times, polenta (or as they knew it, pulmentum) was the staple of the mighty Roman Legions, and they would eat it in either a porridge or in a hard cake like form, much like today. Even though bread was widely available in Ancient Rome, the legions and the poor alike preferred the simplicity and tastiness of their early polenta. 

When maize arrived from the New World sometime in the 15th or 16th centuries, it was a perfect match for the farms of Northern Italy, where landowners could grow vast fields of corn for profit, while forcing the peasantry to subsist on cornmeal. Cornmeal polenta is very tasty and filling, and therefore continued to be a staple long after conditions improved. Amazingly, this simple act of greed on the part of landowners helped shape a major component of Italian cooking.
 

Making Polenta

Much of Italy's polenta is still made the tedious old-fashioned way using a round bottom copper pot known as a Paiolo and a long wooden spoon known as a Tarello. The process to make a soft polenta involves a 3 to 1 ratio of water to polenta and constant stirring for up to 50 minutes. Today in a modern kitchen with a good heavy pot, polenta preparation is not so painstaking, but it still does need attention and occasional stirring. When finished the polenta can served in this soft form or poured out onto a slab and allowed to cool to form a cake.
 
Join your friends at Marco as we celebrate this delicious dish with Polenta Night, April 26. Enjoy polenta poured table side on a wooden board and served with several accompanying toppings, hearts of romaine salad, and tiramisu. Check our website for the complete menu.