Saturday, October 24, 2009

Polenta Party

I went to my first Italian dinner party. Of course, I loved it. Corado played host to his twenty or so guests, refilling wine glasses and showing off his balcony over Monteverde. Dinner: I was standing with Courtney, feeling impossibly tall in ma new suede boots, when everyone came into the room and circled around a table covered in tin foil and cooking paper. What is going on, we wondered. Suddenly, a tiny girl comes in with a huge pot. Without a word, she pours polenta all over the table! Then her friends came in bearing smaller pots filled with sauces (mushroom, tomato, zucchini, cheese, sausage etc) which they poured into strips in the cooling cornmeal. My jaw dropped. Corado passed out spoons and everyone started banging theirs on the edge of the table, the noise building and building before everyone plunged in. You simply took a dip from the section near you. Corado would ring a bell every so often (these sorts of instruments were all over the house, I sat on a squash racket at one point) and shout GIRO! and then we would all shuffle around the table to sample a different portion. It was ridiculous and awesome and so very Italian. Would Americans ever condone this sort of group food game? I think not.

2 comments:

  1. Rem,
    In memory of you, we had polenta last night at Trattoria Riccardo. Alas,it was served in a bowl.

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