Polenta

When I made the luscious vibrant yellow Polenta Bramata to accompany the ragu, I decided to reserve half of it to experiment with making antipasti. In this first attempt I made two versions of Rebecchini, hot mini polenta sandwiches. Inspired by another simple satisfying snack, Spiedini alla Romana, layers of fried or broiled mozzarella and bread drizzled with anchovy and parsley oil, I decided to add mozzarella to my polenta sandwich.

To make the polenta squares, I spread out the loose cooked polenta on to a parchment lined baking sheet. I let the polenta cool and set. After about an hour it was ready to be sliced. I cut mine into small squares but given my addition of bocconcini mozzarella, a disc shape makes more sense. The rim of a small glass will do the trick. I assembled thin slices of mozzarella between two squares of polenta. I then dipped the sandwiches in a beaten egg and dredged them in flour before setting them carefully in a pan of almost smoking oil. There should be just enough oil to allow the sandwiches to properly fry. As long as the oil is hot enough, the high heat will cause water vapor to escape from the sandwiches and repel the oil. If you do not see bubbles on the surface of the oil, it is not hot enough. The mozzarella should quickly melt and the polenta brown, once this happens they can be flipped and then pulled from the pan and rested on paper towel. If they are cooked in the oil for too long, much of the water will be lost and the oil will begin to penetrate the food leaving it soggy and greasy. To make the sauce I minced 2 cloves of garlic, 5 anchovies and a teaspoon of capers and incorporated them together in a saute pan of hot extra-virgin olive oil. To lighten the sauce and provide some acid I added the juice of half a lemon. The sandwiches should be eaten immediately with the anchovy sauce and chopped fresh parsley. While these are meant to be snacks, I think they would go well plated too with a puntarelle salad. Puntarelle is a variety of chicory. The root end of the shoots are used, split many times and soaked in cold water for about 1/2 an hour to curl up the straight stems. Puntarelle is traditionally dressed in vinaigrette of anchovy, raw garlic, olive oil and vinegar. To give a fresh vegetal crunch Id lightly toss the shoots in dressing, and pile them on top of the hot undressed sandwiches. Either way- oozing cheese, crispy polenta 'bread' and with a salty, tart sauce is going to be yummy!

The remaining polenta squares I anointed with either a shaving of salty, nutty, hard, spanish goat cheese or a pungent, grassy, creamy french slice. On to a pan and under the broiler they went. The hard cheese was finished with a buckwheat honey, thyme and black pepper; the soft with orange blossom honey and red hawaiian clay salt. They were both satisfyingly sweet, salty and earthy, but Im not sure when I'd make them again. I love fresh ricotta with honey, thyme and good finishing salt, so I thought I'd try an iteration for polenta- not my greatest success but pretty nonetheless.