Polenta: Italian Comfort Food

Polenta was not always prepared from ground corn. Italians came to know polenta in its present form only in the late 1700s, with introduction of maize to Italy from the New World. In the interim, since the 1550s polenta meant simply “crushed legumes or grain,” particularly barley. There are delicious modern polenta versions made from chickpea flour, native to the Italian Leguria Region.

The mashed grains or legumes were peasant food, and more often than not the grains, the only subsistence food impoverished people had, were moldy from lack of proper drying. When they had it, the peasants would add poor quality cheese or an onion to the mixture. This monotonous diet often led to sickness. Their food was filling, but not nutritious, because the human digestive system cannot extract the nutrients from the way the corn is processed, in contrast to the Amerindians who lived on corn [maize] but processed it differently. Italian peasants consuming nothing but polenta often contracted pellagra, caused by a nutritional deficiency in niacin and protein. The peasants had nothing else to eat, so they stuck with it.

Polenta has come a long way since then. As access to inexpensive protein and vegetables augment our modern, superbly tasty versions of polenta, the varieties of polenta preparations are astonishing, as are the ways it is served. Now it is usually attractive, with meat or fish on the side, sauced or simply with melted butter and or grated cheese, decorated with a colorful array of vegetables. Well-prepared polenta should be slightly creamy, with just a touch of “bite” left to the grain.

Each Italian housewife has her own favorite way of cooking polenta. The traditional way calls for stirring the dry grain into boiling water and keep stirring until the cooking process is finished. For those who want to try polenta but are daunted by the cooking process, ready-cooked polenta, often in the shape of a sausage, is available in larger grocery stores. It keeps well in the refrigerator until ready to be used. Simply follow the instructions on the package. Instant polenta that comes in a box is another option.

British Museum announces Italian Renaissance drawings exhibition

Delicate works by artists from Fra Angelico to Leonardo to include loans from the Uffizi in Florence.

The British Museum’s collection of Italian Renaissance drawings is so fragile that its masterpieces are exhibited only once in a generation.

Next summer a chance to see these delicate objects will finally come around, as the museum launches an exhibition, in partnership with the Uffizi in Florence, of works on paper by artists from Fra Angelico to Leonardo.

The 100 or so works will span the period 1400-1510 and artists including Jacopo and Gentile Bellini, Botticelli, Filippo Lippi, Mantegna, Michelangelo and Raphael.

About half of the works will come from Florence, and some have never been shown in the UK before. Bringing the drawings from Florence together with those from London, said British Museum director Neil MacGregor, will “together allow a different reading of draughtsmanship from the period. It will allow a new engagement with this part of the Italian Renaissance.”

In typical British Museum style, the message is “only connect”; for the museum will at the same time mount an exhibition of West African sculpture of the same period. Works from the kingdom of Ife – a powerful, cosmopolitan city state in what is now Nigeria that flourished from the 12th to the 15th centuries – will form the focus of an exhibition for the first time outside Africa.