Polenta. Greens. Red Sauce

I love warm, wet polenta. Please try it that way if you've only done the cooled, sliced, warmed back up version. Just had it with butter and brie in the polenta and a sauce of greens (mizuna, beet greens, parsley) cooked with cream, some red sauce, a little fish sauce. My tummy is the happiest it's been since the last time I had quesadillas made with real tortillas from Baja. A year ago. Happy. Love.

I use the Rogue Dead Guy Ale growler to store dried polenta. Rogue is brewed in Newport, OR, eh? A whole lot of Rogue 22s were consumed while building my folks' house in Newport.... 

Polenta is super easy, but you do have to do some work. The recipe I use is from Marcella Hazan, the Julia Child of Italian cooking. It calls for alot more water than you usually see. That means you have to cook it longer (40 minutes or so), stir more, etc. Because of that, the texture is gloriously smooth. Also, you should use a copper pot. Having the heat go up the side means that the sides get this really cool film of corn starch that peels off every once in a while. It's the little things. It should be an el cheapo copper pot from a thrift store, it's fine if the tin is wearing off, showing the copper through, cause corn doesn't react poisonously with raw copper like acidic foods do. Butter at the end is essential, cheese is good if you can eat it. 

Polenta:

recipe from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

7 c water

1 2/3 c polenta

salt

butter

parmesan cheese

Boil water, pour in polenta in a thin stream, add salt. 

Stir for 40 min or so, until it's really thick.

Stir in butter and cheese. 

Serve/eat ASAP, the texture gets less interesting quickly.