Polenta is a dish of north Italy. People eat here with the typical fish of the lake, “missoltino”, with meat or cheese. If you cook too much polenta, you can eat it the day after with eggs or milk. Once in Lecco, many and many years ago, there were “I pulentatt”, polenta sellers. We can think that they were like fast-food; in fact customers bought by the “pulentatt” polenta and fried fish and they could immediately eat it sitting there, under a marquee or go home. It’s easy to find cooked polenta in rotisseries and gastronomies.
People, years ago, before the Polenta, used to prepare and eat, every day, dishes with broth. They are very good for a healthy alimentation. The only “little problem” is that it takes a long time to cook them. Now people use the pressure cooker that takes half time. Once, these dishes was prepared with water, a bit of condiment, like lard, and just one vegetable because people were not rich enough to have many kind of vegetables. Now it’s a normal to prepare soups with a lot of vegetables and jointing rice or “pasta”.
Tucc e Regell
It’s a typical dish of the Bellagio area and it isn’t a “normal” polenta, but it’s “uncial”. It comes from an old familiar rite. The “tucc” comes from “tucà” that in dialect means “to touch”, in fact people take the polenta by hands. The Regell is a boiled wine. People eat the “tucc” sitting in a ring, around the cauldron that is laid on a chair. Everyone takes a bit of polenta with a wood spoon and bring it to the mouth with the hand, after having made a little ball. The tucc is a main dish, very rich and with many calories. The best wine for the tucc is a “barbera”.
The season: autumn – winter – spring
Difficulty: åå
Preparation time: 2 hours 1/2
Serves: 6
Ingredients for the tucc
700 gm. yellow flour
1,2 kg. Low fat “mountain” cheese – half maturing
800 gm. butter
3 l. water
1 spoon of oil
salt
Ingredients for the regell:
red wine (1,5 l.)
lemon rind
1 apple
3 cloves
1 piece of cinnamon
Method:
Prepare the polenta in the cauldron, pouring the yellow flour in the salted water, add oil, always stiring with the special wood stick for polenta. After about 45 minutes, add, always stiring, small quantities of cheese and small quantities of butter until finishing these ingredients and obtaining a perfect consisting without lumps. Cook for other 30 minutes and serve it. When “tucc” is finished, put again the cauldron on the fire, with the rest of polenta all around and pour the two bottles of red wine. Add sugar, cinnamon, cloves, the apple cut in small pieces and the lemon rind. Boil it for a quarter and serve it warm.
Traditional Polenta
The season: autumn/winter
Difficulty: å
Preparation time: 60 minutes
Ingredients:
2 l. water
½ kg. Maize flour
2 small spoons of salt
Preparation:
Put the water in the cauldron, on the fire and, when it boils, pouring slowly the flour. Go on stiring well, attention to avoid lumps and cook for about one hour. Remember that the polenta, when you serve it, must be covered with a napkin for a few minutes.
Polenta Taragna
The season: autumn/winter/spring
Difficulty: å
Preparation time: 60 minutes
Ingredients:
½ kg. Flour (125 gr. saracen corn flour and 375 gr. yellow flour) it’s possible to buy the mixed flour, right for this kind of polenta
250 gm. butter
2 l. water
salt
250 gr. lean cheese (matured and fresh)
Method:
Stir, as all other types of polenta, the flour in the salted and boiled water and 125 gr. of butter in pieces. Go on stiring and, when just a few minutes are missing, add the rest of the butter and the cheese (cut in pieces) that will melt and will mix with the flour.
Pucia di luganiga and mushrooms
Season: Autumn/Winter/Spring
Difficulty: å
Preparation time: 60′
Ingredients:
200 gr. luganiga
20 gr. dry mushrooms
1 tablespoon of olio
¼ of glass of red wine
Method:
Soak the mushrooms in lukewarm water for about 2 hours. Dice the luganiga and brown in the oil. As soon as it takes color, add the wine and leave it to evaporate. Add the fungi and the soaking water that has been filtered. Cover with a lid and continue to cook on a moderate flame for about 10 minutes. Serve with polenta….It is truelly delicious!
Polenta rustida
Pulenta rustida This is a very simple dish but very tasty! The only thing needed to do is slice the pre-prepared cooked polenta and fry it in oil or butter. (In the area of Como butter is preferred).
Polenta and milk
This is an ancient recipe that can be used for breakfast or a meal because of the milk and corn.
Season: Autumn – winter – spring
Difficulty: ĺ
Preparation Time: 60′
Ingredients:
look at the recipe for a traditional polenta Milk.
Method:
Simple!!!
Put the hot polenta in a bowl and cover with the cold milk.
If the polenta was prepared the day before, then before adding the milk heat the polenta under the grill of the oven.
