On a recent trip to Italy I saw my friend Nina, from Champoluc, a small town in the Aosta Valley. Her polenta is famous all over the area. This is not only because the ingredients like the butter and Fontina cheese come from her own cows and taste sublime, but because of her very orthodox way of making it. She recently modernized the kitchen in her hotel, but the old wood-fired heavy-duty cooker remains, probably just to make polenta which needs a traditional slow stove. It
