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Today the food crisis affects both the countryside and the city. Also in Central Italy, the farmers consume food of scarce volume and little nourishing substance.
Bread is obtained by a low percentage of wheat and flour mixed with the vegetables that can be an important completion of the diet of the farmer and the settlers. Turnips, grass, beets, salad and some potatoes are the only vegetables that complete the lunch of these poor people, who on the workplace consume only a piece of bread, eaten with some fruit, a pear or an apple.
The dish eaten throughout Italy is “polenta”, sort of purée made with corn flour, sometime seasoned only with some wild grass, insipid and often bitter.
FOOD IN 1860s
To make polenta, put a thick steel pan over the heat and pour 2 liters of water;
• when the water is about to touch the boil add the salt;
• then pour the flour, stirring with a wooden spoon;
• keep cooking at high temperature, stirring quickly. Add also the olive oil that will serve to avoid the formation of lumps;
• keep stirring;
• waiting for it to boil again and continue cooking for 50 minutes on a gentle flame, stirring constantly, taking care not to let it stick to the bottom. After 50 minutes the polenta is ready;
• raise the fire so that it is detached from the pot;
• wait to see that it comes off well from the bottom, now carefully turn the pan over a round cutting board to turn out the polenta;
Your polenta is ready to be brought to the table!
Conservation
The polenta can be conserved in the refrigerator, closed in a container for 4 days.
You can slice it and put it on the grill to make it crispy. Serve it with cheese, or tomato sauce, or other toppings of your choice.
This is the recipe:
Ingredients
Corn's flour: 500 gr
Water: 2 l
Extra virgin olive oil: 15 g
Salt: 1 spoon