15 October 2018

Polenta pour la première fois

I remember the first time I ever ate polenta. It was in 1975 and I was living in Paris. An American woman that I knew from the university where I had been a student in North Carolina was also living in Paris then. She had a French friend named Jean-Louis.






Linda was living in a tiny fourth-floor walk-up apartment in the 9e arrondissement just off the rue des Martyrs, up behind the église Notre-Dame de Laurette. I think she had invited me and Jean-Louis over for lunch. I was living out in Asnières-sur-Seine that year.





Jean-Louis (I can't remember his last name, but I think it sounded Italian) said he was going to make polenta for lunch. I asked him what that was. I had never heard of it before. He said it was something he learned to cook in Provence, where he had family. It was more or less Italian, but also southern French.






When he cooked the polenta, I realized it was a form of grits, a southern U.S. food staple. Only it was yellow, not white. And J-L was cooking it with sausages and tomato sauce as an accompaniment. In the North Carolina, we ate grits only at breakfast, with butter, salt, and sometimes some grated cheese stirred in to melt, for flavor.



I was happy to find out I could get grits in France. And of course good sausages cooked in tomato sauce was something anybody would like. J-L cooked the polenta in a pot on the stove, poured it into a baking pan, and laid cooked sausages over the top. The polenta was thick, not runny. Then he poured tomato sauce over the top and popped the dish into the oven to heat through and brown.

I loved the taste and the simplicity of it. I thought of it a few days ago, because we had polenta, fresh tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and plenty of tomato sauce, as well as some little veal meatballs that I had stored in the freezer. We'd been eating rice, potatoes, and pasta for a few days, so polenta would be a nice change. I browned the meatballs with sliced onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes, and then poured tomato sauce over all that and let it finish cooking. The sauce would be spread over the cooked polenta and the dish then browned in the oven. (You could make it without meat...)



I cooked the polenta (1 part polenta and 3 parts water), with some grated cheese stirred in, for five minutes in the microwave. Then we enjoyed the gratin with parmesan cheese grated over it at the table, and a drizzle of olive oil. On the internet, I see recipes for something similar called polenta con salciccia. Bon appétit ! And thanks to CHM for the frying pan and the baking dish.

15 comments:

  1. Glad a was a party to the making of this so mouth-watering dish! It looks and sounds so delicious.

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    1. Both of those are very nice cooking implements. And the baking dish (bean pot) is the color of polenta on the outside.

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    2. I cooked many a good thing in that frying pan when in Salton City. The one that comes immediately to mind is côtes de porc confites au lait and that was delicious!

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    3. Your post gave me the idea to make for lunch something similar using some couscous grain I had left in a jar, some semolina, and strong cheese that I wouldn't buy and don't really know how to use that was given to me by my French neighbor. He also gave me some kind of dip with dried tomatoes, capers, onions, carrots and what else that again I don't know what to do with it. The result wasn't out of this world, but it was edible!

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    4. I'm glad it was good. Cooking or melting strong cheese is a good way to make it milder-tasting. Did the semolina bind the couscous into a polenta-like texture.

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    5. Yes, I used one part couscous and one part semolina and it blended smoothly. The part that wasn't that good was that "spread"! If I had used spahhetti sauce instead it would have been great. I'll keep the cheese but throw away the spread made in Peru.

      Sun Dried Tomato and Parmesan
      Crostini Spread, ELKI

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  2. Wow, I would never imagine pairing polenta with a tomato sauce. It's hard for me to imagine the flavor of the two together, but I'll take your word for it!

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    1. How about shrimp and grits? I like that with okra.

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  3. I grew up in North Carolina, never would allow a grit :) to cross my lips.
    Now that I am an adult, having lived in a few places ... I love a bowl of grits with one fried egg set on top.
    I have not had fried okra in years and years ... sooo good.

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    1. If we hadn't had grits with salt, pepper, butter and sometimes melted cheese for breakfast, we would have felt much poorer than we actually were. As for okra, fried is okay but I like okra better just steamed or boiled. And it's really good cooked with tomatoes and onions.

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  4. I love that yellow baking dish. I've never tried to cook polenta, but can make grits easily in the microwave.

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  5. Polenta cooks up just like grits. I use 5-minute polenta. You could make the same recipe that I posted about with grits instead of polenta.

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  6. Replies
    1. Sorry! Right comment on the wrong blog!

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    2. What in the world is a "blogassary"?

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