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Polenta Pasticciata

Polenta Pasticciata is a layered polenta dish with a meat sauce and béchamel topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Polenta Pasticciata

Ingredients

Directions

Make the polenta

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Gradually add the Indian meal to the boiling milk, stirring constantly.

  3. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring constantly, until thick.

  4. Add coarse sea salt before removing from heat.

  5. Turn the polenta onto a board.

  6. Spread it to a thickness of 2 fingers.

Make the meat sauce

  1. For the meat sauce, dice the beef and chop the ham, onion, carrot, and celery finely.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter.

  3. Add the meat and vegetables with pepper.

  4. Brown the meat.

  5. Add a pinch of flour and the bouillon gradually.

  6. Cook for 30 minutes without straining the sauce.

Make the béchamel and assemble

  1. For the béchamel sauce, melt 1 tablespoon of butter.

  2. Mix with 1 tablespoon of flour until golden brown.

  3. Slowly add 1 pint of milk, stirring constantly until thickened like custard.

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Forms the thick polenta body as it cooks in the boiling milk.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the cornmeal swells in and sets into a custard-like texture.
Flour
Thickens the meat sauce and the béchamel by binding liquid into a smooth sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor and helps brown the meat and roux.
Beef
Provides the main meat flavor and body of the sauce after browning and simmering.

The step that matters

Stirring the polenta constantly. Cornmeal added to boiling milk can clump and scorch on the bottom if not stirred continuously, and it thickens unevenly without steady stirring.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, beef, ham, butter, onion, carrot, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, beef, ham, butter, onion, carrot, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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