In his book “The Unprejudiced Palate” (which is part personal history, part practical garden and kitchen guide, part cookbook, and all a fun and interesting read), Dr. Angelo Pellegrini says that soft polenta in Italy has roughly the same relationship to pasta as brown country bread has to the baguette in France: it is what everyone ate as a daily staple until the industrial revolution made the more highly processed replacement product widely available. Cheap, filling and warming, cornmeal porridge was the ideal peasant food.

Although it is most often associated with Italy, it is also found in the cuisines of southern France, where the growing of corn has a a long history.  Near us, in the French Basque countries, the organic farmer’s cooperative Arto Gorria has brought back the production of Grand Roux Basque corn.  This heirloom field-corn varietal, known for its multicolored ears, with variations from gold to red to maroon to almost brown, is milled into corn flour and course polenta meal.

This easy recipe is excellent made with Grand Roux Basque polenta meal, which give the polenta a nutty, whole grain flavor. But works as well with any organic polenta. Very simple and very rich at the same time, creamy polenta is great served with a hearty winter beef stew, or as I did, with pork cheeks simmered with vermouth, rosemary and fennel.