"It’s not a pizza, ... It really is a happy-looking pie, with its yellows and reds and wonderfully golden edges." Ottolenghi
Last year, or maybe even the year before - time flies - I made myself a sort of bucket list of things I had never made, and polenta was one of them. My first effort - an Ottolenghi kind of gnocchi romana was such a success and so really easy, that I tried again with his
Baked polenta with feta béchamel and za'atar tomatoes which I served at one of those family get-togethers for the vegetarian in our midst. Although, of course, once she had taken her share the rest of us dived in. It was absolutely delicious and I highly recommend it.
I feature it here because I was reminded of it after Felicity Cloake in The Guardian newsletter this week was talking about the dominance of pizza in our world and referenced an article from one of my other favourite cooks, Nigel Slater, in which he made a couple of polenta pizzas, although in the course of his introduction he said:
"I don’t really like to call this particular cheese-and-vegetable-topped flatbread pizza, but it is not something I intend to lose any sleep over."
Ottolenghi's version has cheese in the mix with the polenta whilst Nigel Slater's does not. And as I dived into this idea I found that there seemed to be no consensus as to whether you mixed cheese into the polenta, although I suspect the majority did not. But then it's an invention of someone - I suspect not an Italian and so 'authenticity' is not an issue.
Nigel Slater's two - Dolcelatte and salami polenta pizza and Courgette, taleggio, polenta and basil pizza use two different kinds of polenta - the posh 'authentic' bramata polenta that takes you half an hour to cook, and the instant kind you get in the supermarket. But even he, who is a bit of a foodie snob really, said:
"I tried both sorts of popular ground maize: the coarse-textured “bramata” that requires half an hour of gentle stirring to get it thoroughly cooked, and the instant, finely ground version that purists like to dismiss. There was, frankly, little difference in this instance. Both crisped up nicely, and both were a suitable alternative for those who want or need something gluten-free."
The only thing wrong with my Ottolenghi tomato version - and it wasn't really anything wrong - just something to note - was that the middle was soft and creamy and so it had to be eaten with a knife and fork. It's not finger food. And I noticed as I searched for other versions that almost everyone mentioned this fact.
So I began my wanderings. The first site - and recipe I found was for this Polenta Pizza Italian Style from a website called My Chef's Apron, which I looked at briefly, following my vow not to ignore unknown websites that happened to appear first on Google's search results. It's run by a Nutritionist called Mariska who now lives in North Carolina but grew up in Belgium in an Italian family but whose mother had Dutch roots. There must be a whole lot of stories there - why the move from Belgium to America, and why were they in Belgium anyway? Apparently several members of the family are working actively with food in one way or another, so that is another potentially fascinating thing to explore. Perhaps it's just yet another example of how gradually all of us are mingling together into a world of multinational people. You would have to hope so in one way wouldn't you, as long as you hang on to all of those gorgeous foodie traditions at the same time whilst making them available to everyone else to explore and fiddle with.
I digress. Mariska suggested a few other toppings - the one shown above is red capsicum, garlic and shallots with mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes. Also worth noting is that she prebakes her polenta base - which she made with American corn grits.
Felicity Cloake has been touring America on her bike and the pizza focus came from her being in Chicago which is famous for its deep dish pizza - which we became acquainted with on a long ago holiday in Hawaii. And so she referred us to a recipe by Dan Lepard for Deep-pan pizza pies.
Now this receipe is a bit curious, because although in the course of the recipe you make a cornmeal mush, it then seems to get completely forgotten and is never mentioned again - though I'm guessing that it actually gets added to the normal pizza dough which you have also been making. The other odd thing is the name - I mean it's not a pie is it? It's just a pizza albeit a deep dish one, that contains meatballs. Maybe he's following the Amerian usage of pie, although in Chicago they definitely do have deep-dish pizzas.
Moving on - Taste has a Polenta pesto pizza and a Polenta, cheese and mushroom pizza the first of which has cheese in the polenta, the second of which does not. And I think you would have to like mushrooms to go for the second. Although really like all recipes for pizza the toppings are really just ideas that you might want yo adopt or that might give you ideas of your own. they both looke pretty though, and it has to be said that the yellow of the polenta is very appealing. And so whilst we have mushrooms, perhaps I should also show you one from Donna Hay - Polenta and mushroom pizza with taleggio and tarragon. Taleggio is such a trendy cheese just now isn't it? Manchego too.
Then I found one which was barely a pizza really, more of a foccacia imitation if anything. The writer of She Loves Biscotti calls it Polenta pizza with fresh herbs but I think you can see (below) why I think of foccacia rather than pizza. However, I will also say that the middle does not look at all soggy. No cheese in the filling just water and oil.
Another oddment was from a Vegan website - Exceedingly Vegan, where the author, looking for a substitute for cheese in the topping went for tahini - which is unusual to say the least - Polenta pizza with tahini sauce. Not sure about that one.
I was about to give up on the whole thing. I mean what more is there to say other than, yes it is pretty delicious, as long as you realise it's not really pizza, when I found that you can get precooked - or maybe its pre prepared polenta. Solid polenta in a tube anyway. And we don't have it here. Well Woolworths did sort of have it on their website but it's out of stock - probably never to return. So it's another 'only in America' thing.
These are Pan-fried polenta slices from a website called My Sequined Life - you just slice the roll of polenta and fry. The author served hers with either a tomato sauce or a pesto in which to dip them, but I guess you could top them with things and then quickly grill them in the oven for mini pizzas. Good for kids.
Quick and very easy anyway. And also another idea of what to do with polenta. Interestingly, however, I could not find any recipes for a polenta pizza by any Italian - whether well-known Australian Italian, Italian chef or Italian blogger. I suspect it is a kind of sacrilege to the Italians. There were several tempting suggestions on offer however, and certainly the Ottolenghi initiator into my polenta journey was utterly delicious and it wasn't just the za'atar tomatoes. Give it a go sometime.
Better than the acceptable but not exciting pizza offerings that we mostly find here anyway. Like our last night's excursion. As David said - it was what it was - perfectly fine, but not really amazing and with a slightly wholesale tomato sauce taste if you know what I mean. Still I didn't have to cook dinner.
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