14th/15th C Italian millet polenta recipe.
LV Millet polenta with verjuice. If you want to make a millet polenta with verjuice. Take millet, which has been washed free of the husk, peeled and ground. Take two pounds of peeled ground almonds which have been tempered/mixed with clear water. Take three geese and put them to roast. Put the almond milk on the fire, mix the remainder with the ground millet, then add to the pan and allow to cook. When it is well cooked take the goose grease and mix it into the polenta, or use any other fresh fat that you have from pork, and add a quantity of sugar and sufficient salt. This dish should be as white as possible. It should be served in a dish with sugar dusted on top, and the sliced geese served carved with another sauce. And it should be made as is said. Take the liver of the geese and egg yolks and boil them together, and when they are cooked grind them in a mortar with fine, good spices, temper/mix them with the cooking water and with a little bit of vinegar and verjuice, and cook, this sauce should be a camel/beige color.
My Version
I modified this a bit to make it a more simple and vegetarian dish. Millet and ground almonds were put to boil in water. Once the millet was tender I mixed in butter, a little sugar and salt. Because I intended this to be served with other savory dishes I added some chopped parsley and a small amount of vinegar just before the end of the cooking.
Sources
– Libro di cucina/ Libro per cuoco (14th/15th c.) (Anonimo Veneziano)
Translated 2003 to January 2005 CE by Helewyse de Birkestad, OL (MKA Louise Smithson) from the
transcription of Ludovico Frati (ed.): Libro di cucina del secolo XIV. Livorno 1899 prepared and made
available online by Thomas Gloning. Last updated March 28th 2005.