Name: Polenta ed Osei (Polenta with Birds)
Yield: Makes 12 ample servings
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 1 cup milk ¼ cup sugar; 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder; ⅓ cup apricot preserves; 1 Polenta Dolce, baked and cooled; ¼ cup sugar; 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and finely ground; 3 large egg yolks Pinch salt; 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened; 8 ounces canned almond paste; ¾ cup water ¼ cup white rum; Yellow food coloring; 1 cup confectioners’ sugar; 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Preparation info

Makes
12
ample servings

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Great Italian Desserts

By Nick Malgieri

Published 1990

About

Ingredients

Cornstarch

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
⅓ cup apricot preserves

Method

This fanciful cake, a specialty of Bergamo, is meant to imitate a mound of polenta served with grilled game birds. The cake is molded in a half-sphere shape and covered with yellow marzipan; then some marzipan is colored and flavored with cocoa powder and molded in the shape of several tiny (cooked) birds. A spoonful of apricot glaze completes the effect, fixing the birds to the mound of “polen