Prep Time: 60 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 to 1 1/3 pounds (5-600 g) finely ground corn meal
- 6 ounces (150 g) dried fava beans
- 6 ounces (150 g) dried beans
- 1 to 1 1/3 pounds (5-600 g) green or red cabbage
- 1/4 pound (100 g) ground cured lard or guanciale (if need be use pancetta), minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
Preparation:
...a polenta-based diet can lead to pellagra, a combination of vitamin deficiencies that can be fatal if there is nothing but polenta -- it was widespread among the poor in central and northern Italy a century ago, which gives an indication of how bad their lot was). However, it became very common in the Marche too, as the above verse shows.This recipe is from the upper reaches of the Esino River, and requires fresh cabbage, which in the past this meant that it was a winter dish. The above quantities will serve 6.
Soak the beans and fava beans overnight and boil them separately until tender.
Heat the oil in a pot and add the minced herbs and the lard; reduce the flame to a low simmer and cook the mixture gently, taking care lest it brown, for about a half hour.
In the meantime, heat the polenta water in your polenta pot (see instructions on making polenta if need be). Lightly salt it and shred the cabbage into it, then add the corn meal and make the polenta as you normally do.
For serving it you have two choices:
Some turn the polenta out onto a polenta board, cover it with the beans and fava beans, and cover all with the sauce.
Others stir the beans and the sauce into the polenta when it's ready, let everything rest for a minute, and then turn the mixture out onto the polenta board.
