Great Value Polenta by Ruth Paget
I learned to love grilled polenta slices when my husband Laurent and I ate dinner out on trips to Vicenza, Italy outside Venice when we lived in Stuttgart, Germany.
I would eat grilled polenta with pork osso buco (braised pork shanks) seasoned with thyme, rosemary, and cloves. The exotic cloves reminded me that Venice grew rich on the spice trade in the middle ages.
Back in California, I now buy Golden Pheasant polenta and think of the Veneto region to make recipes out of Polenta by Michele Anna Jordan, a Sonoma County caterer and author, who provides 100 polenta recipes in her cookbook.
Jordan writes that relying on polenta alone for meals can cause pellagra, a rash of dry, rough skin. However, polenta, which is made from corn, is a great carbohydrate to go along with other ingredients due to significant amounts of the following nutrients:
-vitamin C
-folic acid
-magnesium
-phosphorous
-thiamine
Jordan provides a recipe for soft polenta, which can be served as a porridge. Her favorite way of eating soft polenta is with chopped walnuts and gorgonzola blue cheese mixed in it.
Jordan also gives instruction on how to make polenta firm so it can be cut into shapes including bars that can used as a base for crostini hors d’oeuvres with toppings. Another use for polenta cut into bars is an Eastern European baked dish with melted goat cheese on top. Once polenta is firm, it can be grilled, fried, or broiled.
Jordan provides 100 polenta recipes in her cookbook, which includes deluxe recipes such as:
-roast chicken with lemon-scented polenta and lemon-cream sauce
-orange-scented duck with olives and polenta
-polenta with ragù meat sauce
-roast pork loin with apricot sauce and polenta pilaf
-polenta with sausages, apples, and mustard greens (I like sausages made by Aidell’s.)
Polenta requires stirring, but other than that I find it easy to work with for tasty results. Jordan provides cooking methods for baking and microwaving polenta that might be preferable for other cooks.
The 100 recipes in Polenta by Michele Anna Jordan are Sonoma County secrets for culinary success making the book a very good purchase.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
