Fried polenta bites with porcini mushrooms

Polenta is a fascinating food that has fed humans since at least ancient Roman times. The concept was simple — grains of cereal pounded and refined almost to a dust (in Latin, pollen — ‘fine flour’ — and pulvis, ‘dust’ or ‘powder’), then cooked with water to form a thick porridge that went by the name of puls or pulentum. Back then, this peasant dish was made mostly with farro, and later with rye and other less-refined grains. Modern polenta, which is predominant