Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [131]
6½ cups water
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups imported Italian instant polenta flour
1. Bring the water to a boil.
2. Add the salt, wait for the water to resume a fast boil, then add the polenta flour in a thin stream. Stir it with a whisk or wooden spoon as you add it. Continue stirring for 1 full minute, cover the pot, and cook for 15 minutes, longer than most instructions on the packages indicate. Stir for 1 minute before turning it out of the pot and into a moistened bowl, as described in the basic recipe.
Baked Polenta with Bolognese Meat Sauce
Polenta is used here as though it were pasta for lasagne: It is sliced, layered with meat sauce and béchamel, and baked.
For 6 servings
Béchamel Sauce, prepared as directed, using 2 cups milk, 4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, 3 tablespoons flour, and ¼ teaspoon salt
Polenta, produced with this this recipe, allowed to become cold and firm for slicing
A lasagne pan and butter for smearing it
2 cups Bolognese Meat Sauce, prepared with this recipe
⅔ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
1. Prepare the béchamel sauce, making it rather thin, the consistency of sour cream. When done, keep it warm in the upper half of a double boiler, with the heat turned to very low. Stir it just before using.
2. Preheat oven to 450°.
3. Slice the cold polenta into layers about ½ inch thick, watching both sides of the mass as you cut to be sure to produce even slices.
4. Smear the lasagne pan lightly with butter. Cover with a layer of polenta, patching with more polenta where necessary to fill in gaps. Combine the meat sauce and the béchamel, spread some of it over the polenta, then add a sprinkling of grated Parmesan. Cover with another layer of polenta, repeating the entire procedure, leaving just enough of the béchamel and meat sauce mixture and grated cheese for a light topping over the next and final layer of polenta. Dot sparingly with butter.
5. Bake on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, until a light brown crust has formed on top. After removing from the oven, allow to settle for a few minutes before serving.
FRITTATE
Defining frittate A frittata may be described as an open-faced Italian omelet. Like an omelet, it consists of eggs cooked in butter with a variety of fillings. But the texture, appearance, and cooking procedure of a frittata are quite unlike those of other types of omelets. Instead of being creamy or runny, it is firm and set, although never to the point of being stiff and dry. It is not folded over into a thick, padded, tapered shape, but consists of a single thin layer, round in shape like the bottom of the pan in which it was made. The variable ingredients that determine the flavor of a frittata are mixed with the eggs while these are raw and become an integral part of them. Frittate are always cooked very slowly, over low heat.
Making a frittata The basic method consists of the following steps:
1. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them with a fork or whisk until the yolks and whites are evenly blended. Add the vegetables, cheese, or other flavor components required by the specific recipe, and mix thoroughly until all the ingredients are evenly combined.
2. Turn on your broiler. (See note below.)
3. Melt the butter in a skillet, preferably with non-stick surface, over medium heat. Do not let the butter become colored, but as soon as it begins to foam, pour the egg mixture—stirring it with a fork while tipping it out of the bowl—into the pan. Turn the heat down to very low. When the eggs have set and thickened, and only the surface is runny, run the skillet under the broiler for a few seconds. Take it out as soon as the “face” of the frittata sets, before it becomes browned.
Note A frittata must be cooked