La Polenta

Facciamo la gran’ polenta! Indeed, polenta ideally is cooked on a grand scale in a large beaten-copper cauldron hung over a fire of incandescent olive wood, as it still is in the farmhouses in the Veneto. In fact, polenta is nothing in its own right except a substantial form of nourishment like porridge. Its gastronomic associations are due to the delicious things served with it: roast quails, stewed hare, braised pheasants, snails. Presented on a polenta board or in a large white porcelain tureen; it reappears at the second course, accompanying, this time, a selection of soft cheeses, gorgonzola dolce, stracchino, ricotta, pecorino dolce.