Polenta Concia

In Valle d'Aosta, the smallest and most alpine of Italian regions, they call this polenta concia. The word means dressed, or seasoned, though enriched comes closer to the truth. This is polenta made fat with fontina cheese and butter, the kind of food that sustained shepherds through frozen winters when nothing else would do.

The dish belongs to a tradition of mountain cooking where calories meant survival. Fontina, made in these valleys since the twelfth century, melts into strings that stretch across the table. The butter does not apologize for its presence. Together they transform simple cornmeal into something that warms you from the inside out.

Do not attempt this with instant polenta. The quick-cooking kind produces paste, not the creamy, slightly textured porridge that true polenta becomes after forty-five minutes of patient stirring. Your arm will know the difference. Your mouth certainly will.