Italian Grill - Mario Batali [22]
Immediately pour the polenta into an ungreased 10-by-14-inch baking pan or lasagne pan, spreading it evenly with a spatula or the back of a wooden spoon. Let cool, then refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until set. (The polenta can be refrigerated, covered, for several days.)
Meanwhile, slice the onion into ⅛-inch-thick rounds. Put in a medium bowl, add the vinegar, sugar, and ice water, and stir and toss to mix. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, stirring and tossing two or three more times.
Preheat a gas grill or prepare a fire in a charcoal grill.
Flip the polenta out onto a cutting board (if you used fine corn-meal, you may need to run a blunt knife around the sides of the pan to release it). Using a 2 ½-inch round cutter, cut out 15 rounds of polenta. Brush the rounds on both sides with 3 tablespoons of the oil and place on the hottest part of the grill. Cook until grill marks form on the first side, about 3 to 4 minutes. Turn and repeat on the other side.
Transfer the grilled polenta to a large platter and sprinkle each round with 1 tablespoon of the grated Parmigiano.
Drain the red onions, reserving ¼ cup of the pickling liquid, and place in a large bowl. Add the reserved pickling liquid, the remaining ¼ cup oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the esca-role and toss to mix.
To serve, arrange the rounds of warm polenta on a platter and place a few leaves of escarole and rings of pickled onion on top of each one.
Chilled sweet-sour onions, warm herb-flecked polenta with melting cheese, and tangy bitter greens all come together in a blast of flavors, textures, and temperatures. The onion pickle is like a quick version of agrodolce, the traditional tart-sweet sauce. You only need the tiny inner leaves of the head of escarole for this; save the outer leaves to braise in olive oil with garlic.
“GREEN”
MAKES ABOUT ⅓ CUP
Kosher salt
Greens from 4 scallions
1 bunch Italian parsley, leaves only
1 cup baby spinach
100 mg ascorbic acid (vitamin C), crushed
¼ cup olive oil
BRING 4 QUARTS WATER TO A BOIL in a medium pot and add 2 tablespoons salt. Set up an ice bath. Drop the scallions, parsley, and spinach into the boiling water, stir to immerse the greens, and cook until tender, about 1 minute. Drain, plunge into the ice bath, and chill until very cold.
Drain the greens well. A handful at a time, squeeze the greens between your palms until no more water comes out. Or wrap them in a clean old kitchen towel and wring them dry.
Put the greens in a food processor, add the ascorbic acid and olive oil, and puree until smooth. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
“Culinary chlorophyll” is a vegetable extract made by putting dark green vegetables through a complicated process involving grinding, soaking, steaming, and more. Our much easier recipe for “green” adds an herbal, vegetal flavor to polenta and gives it an attractive green-speckled look. The ascorbic acid (i.e., vitamin C—buy it at the drugstore) stabilizes the color, and we use “green” in a lot of other things too, such as dressings for beans and potatoes.
PIZZA AND FLATBREADS
Pizza is such an iconic food that you may never have thought of it as a flatbread. But it is, of course, and it is just one of the dozens of regional flatbreads made all over Italy, all of which have their own personal histories, many of them stretching back centuries. Pizza has its own myriad variations, from the emblematic pizza alla napoletana to pizza rustica, a stuffed savory pie, to pizza pasquale, a sweet Easter bread. And then, of course, one town’s pizza is another one’s focaccia.
The origins of pizza date back to Greek and Roman times, but most culinary historians credit Naples with developing, or at least popularizing, pizza