Simple Italian Cookery | Page 7

add salt. When it begins
to boil add the Indian meal, little by little. Keep stirring constantly as
you pour it in, to prevent lumps. Boil for one-half hour, stirring
constantly over a moderate fire. If desired, a little more water may be
added if preferred not so thick. Add grated cheese and butter.
POLENTA FRITTERS
Put one pinch of salt and one tablespoon of sugar into a cup of milk,
and put it on to boil. As soon as it boils pour in, little by little, one-half
scant cup of fine Indian meal, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.
Allow it to boil gently for twenty minutes.
Take it off the stove, add one level tablespoon of butter and the yolk of
one egg and a little grated lemon-peel. Beat up well to mix the egg and
butter. Then turn the mixture onto the bread-board, which has been
dampened; spread it out to the thickness of a finger. Allow it to cool,
then cut into squares or diamonds or little rounds, dip these into egg
and then into the bread crumbs, and fry them in boiling lard, a few at a
time. Sprinkle with sugar, and serve hot.
POLENTA "ALLA TOSCANA"
2 cups of Indian meal 3 pints of cold water
Put the water on, and when it boils add salt. Then add the Indian meal,
little by little, stirring all the time. Allow it to boil over a moderate fire
for one-half hour, stirring constantly. When the meal has become quite
stiff, take a wooden spoon and dip it into hot water, and with it detach

the Indian meal from the side of the saucepan, then hold the saucepan
for a moment over the hottest part of the fire, until the Indian meal has
become detached from the bottom. Then turn it out onto the
bread-board; it should come out whole in a mold. Let it stand a few
moments to cool. Then with a wire cut it into slices about the thickness
of a finger. Place these slices on a hot platter in a layer; pour over them
a good meat gravy and grated cheese; then put on another layer of the
polenta, and add more gravy and cheese, and so on, until your polenta
is used up.
POLENTA WITH CHOPPED SAUSAGES
Prepare the Indian meal as in the preceding receipt.
Take four Deerfoot sausages (or two, if a larger variety of sausage),
remove the skins, chop fine, then fry in butter. When they are a nice
brown add one tablespoon of stock, and two tablespoons of tomato
paste thinned with hot water (or a corresponding amount of the tomato
sauce).
Cook for fifteen minutes more. Then cut the polenta in slices as in
preceding receipt and add the chopped sausages with their sauce and
grated cheese, in layers as before.
CHICKEN WITH POLENTA
Take a small chicken; clean and prepare it. Take a slice of ham fat four
fingers wide and one finger long (or one tablespoon of good lard).
Chop up very fine with a chopping knife, and put into a good-sized
saucepan. Take one-half an onion, a small carrot, a piece of celery, and
cut all into very small pieces and add them all to the fat. Then put in the
chicken, the salt, pepper, and a pinch of allspice, and cover the
saucepan. Cook until the chicken is covered, basting with the grease,
and turning the chicken until it is brown on all sides; then add one-third
of a glass of red or white wine. When the wine has become absorbed,
add one tablespoon of the tomato paste, dissolved in a cup of hot water
(or a cup of tomato sauce not too thick). Cook for a few moments
more--until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Prepare the Indian meal as in receipt for Indian meal, and serve the
chicken surrounded by the Indian meal, with the sauce poured over all
and grated cheese sprinkled over the Indian meal.
Pigeon may be prepared in the same way as the chicken and served
with the Indian meal; or either one may be served instead of the Indian
meal with rice, as in receipt for Risotto alla Nostrale; Macaroni, as in
receipt for Macaroni with Butter, or Ribbon Macaroni, as in receipt
given.
POLENTA PASTICCIATA
3/4 of a cup of Indian meal 1 quart of milk
Boil the milk, and add the Indian meal, a little at a time, when milk is
boiling, stirring constantly. Cook for one-half an hour, stirring
constantly. Add salt just before taking off the fire. The Indian meal
should be stiff when finished. Turn it onto the bread-board, and spread
it out to the thickness of two fingers. While it is cooking prepare a meat
sauce, and a Bechamel sauce as follows:
MEAT