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Polenta "alia Toscana"

Polenta alla Toscana is a thick cornmeal dish cooked in salted water, served with meat gravy and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Polenta "alia Toscana"

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the polenta

  1. Bring the water to a boil and add salt.

  2. Gradually stir in the Indian meal, mixing constantly.

  3. Boil over moderate heat for 30 minutes, stirring continuously.

  4. When thick, detach the polenta from the saucepan with a wet wooden spoon.

Cool and serve

  1. Turn it out onto a damp breadboard and let it cool.

  2. Cut into finger-thick slices and serve with meat gravy and grated cheese.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Cornmeal starch gelatinises as it cooks, thickening the water into a firm, sliceable mass.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the Indian meal, mixing constantly.. Adding the meal slowly while stirring keeps its starch dispersed in the water. Dumping it in at once lets clumps form that hydrate on the outside only, leaving lumps and an uneven texture.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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