Quail Salad with Polenta, Rocket & Mushrooms

The Mediterranean would not be the Mediterranean without the enthusiastic consumption of small birds. There is a frequently brutal attitude in which the word ‘conservation’ never raises its head, where song birds are blown from the sky or caught cruelly in nets. The great thing about quail is that, while they have all the requisite qualities of size and delicate flavour, they are farmed and can be regarded pretty much as Lilliputian chickens.

This is a particularly delicious dish, f