Menu: Polenta Layered with Vegetables, Salt Pork, and Parmesan

Remaining in Venice, we now focus on another Venetian staple, polenta. As mentioned in the last post, polenta is at least as popular as pasta in various parts of Northern Italy. While evidence suggests that a form of polenta existed since at least Roman times, likely made of barley, millet or spelt, corn became the grain of choice after it was introduced in the 16^th Century. Exactly why corn caught on in the North while pasta caught on sooner and more thoroughly in the South is unclear, but regardless, polenta is a Northern staple.

Though often a side dish, frequently served alongside meat, here it is a main course. After the corn mixture is cooked, it is poured into loaf pans to chill and firm up before being sliced. The slices are layered in a pan with a sauce made of salt pork (which looks and tastes a lot like unsmoked bacon), carrot, onion, celery, and rehydrated dried mushrooms with their soaking liquid. The three layers of polenta and two layers of sauce are topped with a layer of grated parmesan cheese.

This wasn’t particularly difficult to make, but was a bit time-consuming and fiddly. It is necessary to stir really well as you are adding the polenta to the boiling water or it will get lumpy, and sometimes it still does. Meanwhile, you need to watch out for steam as the bubbles rise to the surface and pop. Finally, you need to slice the polenta really thin to get three layers in the pan. The sauce, which has a texture kind of like chunky salsa, came together without difficulty. Overall, it was pretty good; balanced and flavorful. I didn’t like it as much as some of the other recipes, but most of the other recipes set a pretty high bar.