Cucina Rustica
Italian Peasant Food Goes Gourmet
by Cait Johnson

Once upon a time, peasant food was eaten by peasants because it was, well, cheap. After all, the dictionary tells us that "peasants" are rustic, unpretentious folk who till the soil for a living: in other words, people with plenty of hearty appetite but not a lot of expendable income. Italian peasant food tends to feature inexpensive, easy-to-come-by ingredients, and the final product is often high in carbohydrates, good fuel for all that hard work in the fields. Here in America, peasant food may no longer be all that inexpensive, but it is still tasty, wholesome--and satisfyingly basic.

It makes sense that peasant food is enjoying a surge of popularity: our increasingly complicated lives seem to create an equal and opposite craving for the simple, the real, the straightforward. And there is really nothing simpler than peasant food. "The ultimate peasant meal is a loaf of bread, a hunk of cheese and a bottle of wine, right?" mused a friend recently. "But it's got to be the real thing. You don't want Wonder Bread, Velveeta, and Thunderbird."

The "real thing" often comes with price tags that would astonish a peasant, but those of us who made Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun a national bestseller are hungry for a more sensuous, relaxed, delicious way of life. Peasant food feeds that hunger--and we are willing to pay for it. When we eat a simple, hearty, peasant meal, we can imagine a place where food is cooked over open fires, or stirred for long stretches at a time, where breads are shaped by hand and baked in wood-fired ovens, where rich cheeses hang from the rafters of every farmer's kitchen, where you walk outside the door to pick fresh herbs to sprinkle on your bread, still warm from the oven. It is a nourishing vision in every sense.

Just a few decades ago, nobody used the word "pasta"--there was macaroni, spaghetti, and Chef Boyardee, and that was it. Then pasta was "discovered" by gourmet chefs. Now that we are on the other side of the pasta revolution we have handmade, homemade, and fresh pastas in every shape imaginable, and when we go out to eat, we can find everything from gemelli with squid ink sauce to ravioli with pumpkin cream to such multicultural mixes as lobster-and-lemongrass tortellini.

Which peasant foods are "going gourmet" today?

"When I think of Italian peasant food now, I think of mostly creamy things, simple comfort," says a friend wise in the ways of good food. "Risotto, polenta. You didn't find those around much in the 70s and now they're everywhere. You can get real polenta meal at the grocery store. Arborio rice is everywhere, even boxed risottos."

I think of breads: rustic flattish foccaccia, dense and satisfying, with coarse salt and olive oil. Bread Alone makes two lovely versions, one with herbs, the other with onions and olives. And bruschetta, lovely little toasts with various toppings. Last Christmas, a friend made bruschetta for us with a jar of red-pepper spread that he'd bought from a store. "I just discovered this stuff," he told us. "Who knew you could buy bruschetta spreads?"

Evidently, the next wave of Italian peasant food is catching on--and it holds a certain earthy glamour. When I spoke with Giovanni Scappin, chef at Rhinebeck's Gigi Trattoria, he explained why. "Good food doesn't have to be sophisticated. It should make you feel cared for. It should have real taste, bring you back to the flavor you have been missing." I was reminded of the famous food writer M.F. K. Fisher's comment that Americans, with our bland fast foods and microwave dinners, are "taste-blind." Evidently, we are opening our eyes to the possibility of food that tastes like something.

When it comes to flavor, Giovanni says, quality is key. "The ingredients have to be great. If the ingredients are good, there is very little you have to do with them." Patrick Hays from Rhinebeck's Cripple Creek agrees. "I had this incredible pasta at a truck stop in Italy. It was just bow-tie pasta with venison and cream. Simple, but delicious. Here at Cripple Creek we sometimes start with the basic ingredients and then take them to another level, something you couldn't make at home."

Good basic ingredients, then, are the first step. Risotto, for instance, has to start with the very best Italian rice. "At Gigi Trattoria," says Giovanni, "we use the Ferrari of rice, to make a creamy risotto without adding a lot of fat." It's the same with polenta, that staple of many a peasant kitchen: both Cripple Creek and Gigi Trattoria use the best imported coarsely-ground cornmeal, and they make it the old-fashioned way, slowly, stirring by hand, in a special pot.

Ah, polenta--as versatile as pasta, but so creamy and comforting. It isn't difficult to make real polenta at home. Although the process of cooking it is a little time-consuming, it can be relaxing, even fun. Making polenta the old-fashioned way can feed our deeper desire for a life abundant with simple, satisfying pleasures. And when we taste that first golden, delicious mouthful, we can almost feel the warm Italian earth under our feet. Those peasants really know good food.

Below is a great basic polenta recipe. Enjoy!

Recipe: Simple, Basic Polenta

serves 4
This recipe may take a bit of time and effort, but it's well worth it. Be sure to use the real thing: imported Italian coarsely-ground yellow cornmeal. Instant polenta meal, while much easier to cook, just doesn't yield the same satisfying results.

Real polenta takes around 45 minutes of continuous stirring. That may sound like a long time, but this is a good way to slow down your busy life a little. Listen to an Italian opera. Sing along. Or take turns stirring with a friend: it makes the time go much faster. Have a glass of wine while you stir. You'll get there.

• 7 cups water
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 2/3 cups imported coarse-grained yellow cornmeal

Bring the water to a boil in a large heavy pot and add the salt.

Adding the cornmeal is a two-handed procedure: with one hand, add the meal slowly, in a very thin stream. With your other hand, stir constantly with a whisk. Keep the water boiling over medium-high heat.

Once all the meal has been added, switch to a wooden spoon and stir continuously and thoroughly, making sure to bring the meal up from the bottom and away from the sides of the pot, for 40 to 45 minutes. In 45 minutes or so, the meal will form a mass that pulls away cleanly from the pot.

Now it's polenta. Serve warm, or chill it until firm and fry or grill.

To serve warm:
Add butter and/or grated cheese (as much as your waistline will permit) to the polenta and stir until melted. Parmesan or romano are usual, but other cheeses are possible. Or, for a flavorful lower-fat alternative, you could stir in pureed cooked vegetables: leeks, zucchini, spinach. Experiment.

You may add toppings (these work with fried or grilled polenta, too):

• sauces: tomato-based pasta sauce, or something completely different. (A friend made steamed shrimp and mole sauce with fresh cilantro for our fried polenta recently. The result was unusual -- and very, very good.)
• greens sauteed with garlic in olive oil: chard, spinach, broccoli rabe, kale
• steamed vegetables: zucchini, delicate new peas, or asparagus
• chopped fresh tomato and basil
• cheeses, in curls, grated or sliced seeds or nuts

• gorgonzola with sauteed spinach and pumpkin seeds
• dandelion-green and walnut pesto
• mushrooms cooked with wine, garlic and onion, topped with goat cheese

Polenta may also be cooled, sliced, and cooked again later. To make polenta rounds, place warm cooked polenta in tall drinking glasses and refrigerate. (It will keep for several days this way.) When ready to use, unmold the polenta from the glasses and slice. Fry in butter/olive oil or grill, and serve with your favorite toppings.

For rectangular, square, or triangular slices, place warm cooked polenta on a flat board, spreading it to the desired thickness. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use, then unwrap and slice as needed. Pre-cooked polenta may be used as a delicious substitute for lasagna noodles, or it can be fried or grilled.

--Cait Johnson