Talking about polenta is opening a window on peasant worlds, on the cuisine of the poor people who along the entire Alpine and pre-Alpine arc from Liguria to Lombardy, from Piedmont to Friuli Venezia Giulia to Veneto, but also further down in Tuscany and in the mountain areas of Umbria and Marche, Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise . it represented the “gold of the table”. But if the most widely used basic cereal is corn, imported into Europe from the Americas in the XNUMXth century, a variety of polenta based on spelled or rye, and later also with buckwheat, imported from Asia.
However, even in painting, corn polenta appears in the work of great artists as a "Nordic" gastronomic element: Pietro Longhi, a painter active in Venice and acute observer of the popular life of his time, depicts in a painting two men seated at a table and two women, one holding in her left hand the ladle with which the polenta was mixed, and the other is pouring, from copper pot. The artist too Geremia Adobati, from Ferrara, was inspired by the "Gold of the poor" for his painting "Waiting for polenta" which depicts an elderly man sitting next to a stove on which polenta is cooking, not surprisingly, in a gold colour. How not to mention the great Flemish painter Bruegel who even ennobled this dish in one of his paintings, the wedding dinner, where two attendants are seen serving plates of polenta to the diners.
A poor dish but rich in vegetables and cereals in many versions with different names and many flavors (even with meat)
So established the "Nordic" culture of polenta, however it must be said that in Sicily, even if far from the virtual spotlights of great artists, and from the literary testimonies of illustrious writers and gastronomes, it is a humble but no less significant and tasty polenta culture has developed over the centuries. Its name is Frascàtula or friscatuli or polenta from the south, it is a dish made with wheat flour and water. It is technically a porridge, and is the equivalent of corn polenta, included at number 221 in the list of traditional Sicilian food products also used in the kitchens of. Basilicata and Calabria.
The origins are very ancient. they date back to the times of ancient Rome, when it was customary to cook cereal flours and legumes together with vegetables. The dish was called in Latin "puls farris".
In the war of the Vespers, women went around the walls of Messina distributing it to the soldiers who resisted the French troops
Lo historian Michele Amari speaks of the Frascàtula in his “War of Vestro” and tells that, the women of the people during the siege of Messina by French troops, they supported their men as follows: “Women raised in a very delicate life, of all ages, of all sizes, were seen competing to sweat under the weight of stones and mortar; and there, amid the rain of blows, bring some to the workers; go around the walls dispensing bread and polenta, quenching their thirst with water, mixing wines”.
Precisely because of its poor and widespread origins there is no real single recipe. There are many variations that welcome the botanical essences of the places of production: vegetables cooked together with wheat flour and water, up to real porridges. And even the names vary with the variability related to the prevailing type of vegetable or grain. Among the cereals used there are also chickpeas, grass peas and peas. And so we have: patacò in Licodia Eubea, piciocia in Troina and Cerami, mintarrimina in Calatino, chiullu in San Michele di Ganzaria, pulenta in Casalvecchio Siculo, ciciotta in Riesi, farfallu in Adrano.
Basically the most accredited frascàtula looks like a polenta made from durum wheat flour, cereals or legumes, prepared as a thick soup called puls (polenta) in which vegetables and meat could be found. The its original name derives from the French "flasque" which in the Garzanti dictionary is translated as flaccid, floppy, without backbone and which would thus describe the consistency of this polenta characterized by its thick grain.
The simplest version of the Sicilian frascatula is prepared by softening the durum wheat flour in hot water. It is left to cook (stirring continuously for about ten minutes) until the desired body is obtained. From this point of view it is well accepted by vegetarians and vegans because only vegetables, wild or even cultivated herbs are added to the wheat flour. But then there are versions enriched with cheese as happens in Modica, from pork or beef, or sausage, lard and bacon and also from fish as is used in some villages in the Trapani area.
The recipe of the Sicilian Frascàtula
Ingredients
300 g flour
1 kg of mixed wild vegetables (chard, chicory, borage, fennel) or broccoli, fennel, mixed chickpeas and peas
100 g of bacon
extra virgin olive oil
sale
pepper
Method
Bring to the boil in a liter and a half of salted water in a saucepan, then immerse the chopped vegetables in it and cook for about ten minutes.
In a pan filled with oil, add the chopped pancetta to fry with a clove of garlic. Then add the drained vegetables to flavor them.
Pour the flour into the cooking broth brought back to the boil, continuing to mix with a whisk to avoid the formation of lumps until the soup thickens. Then add the vegetables and continue to cook for a few minutes. After that, turn off the heat, let it rest, then pour the mixture into a bowl and drizzle with a drizzle of oil before serving. Sprinkle with cheese and a grind of pepper
