Tag: polenta

Amor polenta, a typical dessert of the Lombard tradition – Italian Cuisine

Amor polenta is a cake made of corn and almond flour, born from the hands of Carlo Zamberletti, a well-known pastry chef from Varese, eager to create a typical dessert for his city

Love polenta, or Dolce di Varese, is a typical cake of Lombard tradition, with a classic amber color due to the presence of a part of corn flour in the dough. It is said that it was born from the hands of Carlo Zamberletti, a historic pastry chef from Varese, who, wanting to make a dessert with typical local flavors, created this dough with a simple consistency and genuine tastes. This is how Amor polenta became the symbolic cake of Varese and it is said that in the mid-1960s it was also highly appreciated by intellectuals and musicians, including the famous soprano Renata Tebaldi.

A cake for all moments

The peculiar aspect of Amor polenta is that of being a delicate sweet, perfect like this, without any added cream, ideal for any time of day, from breakfast to snack. It has a soft texture, which adapts very well to soaked in milk or tea, but which makes it special even when enjoyed alone. The corn flour, both in the dough and on the surface, gives it a very special flavor, in addition to one slightly grainy texture.

Almonds in the dough for a load of health

Together with corn flour, Amor polenta is made of almonds toasted and chopped so finely that it becomes flour. Almonds have many health properties: they are rich in Vitamin E and unsaturated acids that protect the body from oxidative processes, are a reservoir of magnesium, specific in case of stress and fatigue, and then manage to keep triglyceride levels low, promoting the well-being of the heart and circulatory system.

Our recipe for Amor polenta

Ingredients

125 g soft butter
125 g granulated sugar (or icing)
a pinch of salt
100 g corn flour plus a little
75 g flour 00
75 g peeled and toasted almonds
a sachet of baking powder
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
powdered sugar to decorate
2 tablespoons of Strega liqueur

Method

First, whip the sugar with the softened butter at room temperature with an electric mixer. It is essential that the butter is soft, so that it can whip up well. Add a pinch of salt and when the mixture has swollen, add the 2 whole eggs and the 2 yolks, inserting them one at a time. Separately, chop the peeled almonds until you get a fine flour and then, in a bowl, mix all the flours with the yeast. Add them to the egg mixture, add the Strega liqueur and mix well so that everything is amalgamated. Grease a fluted mold with a semi-cylindrical shape and sprinkle it with corn flour. You can help yourself with a small brush, to make the corn flour adhere to the entire surface of the mold. Pour the dough, level it and bake it at 185 ° for 40 minutes (if you use the convection oven, set the temperature to 160 ° and cook for 30 minutes). Before taking the cake out of the oven, check its cooking with a toothpick: if it comes out dry from the dough, then the Amor polenta is ready. Wait until it has cooled down before turning it out. Bring it to the table dusted with powdered sugar.

Find out in the tutorial some tips for preparing Amor polenta

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Hard Polenta Recipe – Italian Cuisine – Italian Cuisine

Ingredients

250 g yellow corn flour
8 rooms
Parmigiano Reggiano DOP

Duration: 1 h

Level: Easy

Doses: 8 people

Pour the flour in 1 liter of salted boiling water and mix with a whisk until the mixture has boiled again.
Lower the flame to low and cook with a lid for 40 minutes.
Pour the polenta in a plum cake mold lined with plastic wrap and let it cool.
Cut slice the polenta, toast it on the grill and serve with pieces of Parmesan cheese.

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The recipe for polenta taragna, typical of Valtellina – Italian Cuisine

Typical dish of poor Valtellinese cuisine, it could be a dish in itself, but gourmets love to serve it with sausages or luganega

What is a "Saracen" doing in Lombardy? Because he is the real protagonist of the polenta taragna, a typical dish of Valtellina, in whose name its essence is contained. Saraceno is wheat, while “taragna” derives from “tarai”, the stick used to “tarare”, turning in the Valtellinese dialect. During cooking, in fact, the polenta it must be mixed without stopping to prevent it from sticking on the bottom of the pot, irremediable error. Once upon a time, on the fire of economic kitchens, the polenta that was boiling in the cauldron was “black”, made exclusively with buckwheat flour. The result was a very nutritious dish, also given the presence of butter and cheese, but with a too strong flavor. Those who could afford it added a little corn flour, to sweeten the impact with the palate. Thus was born the recipe as it is known today.

The peculiarity of the taragna? Buckwheat flour

Unlike the "blonde" corn polenta, the taragna has a definitely darker color. Thanks to buckwheat, a crop introduced in Valtellina around the middle of the 1500s and which today is a Slow Food Presidium. Resistant to cold climates, it has always represented one of the fundamental foods of the diet of the Valtellina farmers. The flour obtained from it is, in fact, also at the basis of others two typical dishes of the area: pizzoccheri and sciatt. Previously considered not very valuable, buckwheat has recently been re-evaluated for its nutritional properties. It does not contain gluten, while it has a high protein value. For this reason, like quinoa, it is considered a pseudo-cereal.

Polenta taragna: the secret

On the shelves of supermarkets it is now not difficult to find pre-cooked mixes, ready in no time. But the real secret to a polenta taragna to lick your fingers is in the prolonged cooking and in the quality of the flours used. For six people, in a saucepan, even better if made of copper, it must be brought to a boil four liters of already salted water where to pay a kilo of flour, about two thirds of buckwheat and a third of corn. The mixture must be lowered "like rain" and mixed with a whisk to prevent lumps from forming. When the mixture begins to have a certain consistency, we move on to wooden spoon to always turn it in the same direction. After about an hour, over moderate heat, when a crust has formed on the bottom and on the walls, it is time to add the other two ingredients. Before butter, 300 grams, cut into small pieces. After about 5 minutes, when cooked, add the Casera cheese, also typical of Valtelina, in chunks, about 600 grams. Before this is completely melted, the polenta taragna must be removed from the heat and poured onto a wooden cutting board. The perfect polenta taragna, of course, it still serves steaming, as a single dish, accompanied by sausages or luganega and, last but not least, a good glass of red wine.