Polenta

Polenta is a food made from cereal flour cooked for a long time in hot water.
It is a particularly cheap food and, therefore, defined as "poor". In our territories, corn polenta (from the plant Zea mays) came just over 300 years before the "unification of" Italy, but the first findings of its consumption date back to the period of importation of the cereal from the Americas (cereal mahiz - Christopher Columbus - 1492).

From the beginning, corn polenta was unknown and its consumption was limited to botanical cultivation; only between 1530 and 1540 did it become part of the dietary needs of the Venetians and Friulians, then of the Bergamo and Milanese, and only towards the middle of the 18th century did it firmly take root in Piedmontese culinary traditions *.
It is a common mistake to associate the name polenta with a derivative of corn as it should indicate any food obtained by cooking cereal-based flours in water. This versatility gives polenta an almost unknown origin and, although corn was cultivated in the American territories already at the beginning of the Iron Age, even the Romans and the Greeks consumed polenta obtained from spelled (called plus) or from the Egyptian spelled. At the time, polenta was prepared with the same procedure throughout the Mediterranean basin and its consistency varied according to the cereal chosen for the flour; the polenta was then seasoned with milk, cheeses, lamb, pork and sour sauce .
In Italy *, corn polenta only took on a decisive role in the livelihood of the population from the beginning of the 19th century. Although at the time it was essential for survival from wars and famines, corn polenta has a major nutritional limit, namely the reduced BIO-availability of Niacin. The deficiency of this water-soluble molecule, also called vitamin PP or B3, leads to malnutrition whose symptoms are grouped in a commonly called pathological picture pellagra.
Although indigenous Americans had systematically consumed corn polenta since ancient times, these populations did not seem to suffer from any kind of vitamin malnutrition. This is attributable to their technical and food knowledge, which also included the chemical bath of the cereal; probably, Mayans and Aztecs had noticed the onset of pellagrose symptoms in subjects who consumed ONLY fresh corn. and they realized that treatment was needed to avoid them. The fact is that the natives came to the conclusion of immersing the cereal in an alkaline bath of water and lime, facilitating the conversion of vit. PP NOT available in BIO-available form.
Although corn polenta does NOT contain gluten, its nutritional composition does not differ significantly from that of wheat.

Video - Homemade Polenta Recipe



Polenta - All you need to know

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Theoretical Video - Polenta: Nutritional Properties

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Average nutritional composition of corn flour per 100g of edible portion

Power 362 kcal Proteins 8.7 g Lipids 2.7 g Carbohydrates 80.7 g Iron 1.8mg Football 6 mg Phosphorus 99 mg Thiamine 0.3 5mg Riboflavin 0.1 mg Niacin 1.9 mg

Polenta Pizzas - Alice's Recipes

Directly from the "In the kitchen with leftovers" section, our personal cooker Alice offers a simple idea to transform leftover polenta into a tantalizing appetizer.



Polenta pizzas for celiacs

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Bibliography:

• Cereals. Properties, uses and virtues - Walter Pedrotti - page 89
• Levels of Recommended Nutrient Intake (LARN) - Italian Society of Human Nutrition (SINU).

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