Polenta and Risotto

When I was growing up we ate polenta at virtually every meal. In the mountains, where it’s too cold to grow wheat for bread, a porridge of buckwheat (polenta taragna) has always been our staple. When corn arrived from the New World, it was ground and cooked in the same way, and sometimes we mix the two. Rice also grows well on the fertile plains of our Po Valley, making it the home of risotto – a dish I am very passionate about!