Fine Italian ingredients for chefs
Polenta is coarsely ground Yellow Cornmeal, used in Italian cooking. Season with herbs, spices, sauted mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes or garlic to make a delicious side dish or entree. Polenta can be sliced, baked or fried. Serve Polenta hot and topped with maple syrup for breakfast.
Serve soft polenta, either plain or with herbs or cheese, as a side dish.
Use polenta as the base for vegetarian main dish, topped with sauce or a hearty vegetable ragoût.
Serve polenta instead of pasta or rice as an accompaniment to meat sauces, stews, or chilis.
Try soft-cooked polenta as a hot breakfast cereal, topped with fresh or dried fruit, nuts, cinnamon, and milk.
Use baked or grilled polenta rounds as a base for hors d’oeuvres or appetizers.
Use polenta to replace the biscuit or puff pastry topping on pot pies.
Polenta with truflle is an easy but luxurious truffle-flavored side dish.
Polenta Taragna is typical of Valtellina as well as of the valleys of Bergamo and Brescia. Its most characteristic trait is its dark color, due to the use of buckwheat flour (mixed with cornmeal).
Zuppa Rapida made with a variety of pulses, beans and grains from orzo, lentils, black-eyed beans, tiny white haricot beans to peas. It is a wonderful array of colours and flavours, various textures that work in harmony with a short cooking time, no soaking is required.
Borlotti beans are widely used in Italian cooking and have a sweetish flavour with a smooth creamy texture. They work well in salads and casseroles. The dried variety needs to be soaked in cold water before cooking.
A small, white, kidney-shaped bean that is good for using in salads and casseroles. The dried variety needs to be soaked in cold water before cooking.
Chickpeas are a small legume popular in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Indian cookery. Chickpeas must be soaked before cooking.
Chickpea, besan or ‘gram’ flour, made from dried ground chickpeas, is widely used in Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine.
It can be used in soups and stews as a thickener, or to add texture rather than flavour.
Ideal for warm salads, casseroles and stuffing as they tend to retain their shape after cooking.