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articles by Peggy Markel
Out of Doors | The Winter House
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Out of Doors
by Peggy Markel
elephant magazine column, Summer 2007
www.iamelephant.com
Right now, I am eating an apple overlooking the straits of Messina on the west coast of Sicily...
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 The Winter House
elephant magazine, Winter 2006
My friend Pierre Cousseau taught me that plants have to be protected from the cold, just like people. Though Pierre is French, he grows aromatic herbs in the Tuscan countryside — or should I say he observes them as they grow. He never waters them. Instead, he lets them adapt to their environment, and leaves them alone. He harvests herbs at their ripe balsamic time — when the plant has the highest concentration of essential oils — inevitably right at the end of summer. He dries them just so, and makes fabulous herbed salts and mixtures. It takes the plant awhile to regain momentum after the harvest-pruning, but slowly it does so, producing just enough foliage to protect itself from the cold. The plant's energy goes to sleep in its earthbound roots, and the part above ground creates a "winter house."
After the lull of summer and fall, we human beings must also prepare our winter house. Where I live in Colorado, we dig up our favorite sweaters, gloves and hats. With 300 sunny days a year, we enjoy winter on the whole. We still get to wear our flip-flops from time to time. We have a dry climate and the winter is not at all bone-chilling, even when it snows. The flakes come down and land like feathers. Winter in the West is the best.
LA POLENTA
I am drawn more to the stove than the slopes. I love to cook warming foods and have dinner gatherings in front of a cozy fire. One of my favorite dishes is La Polenta. It warms the bones and puts color in your cheeks. Ground whole corn flour is whisked into salted boiling water and stirred slowly off and on for an hour or two--you've got to be truly devoted. Some of your friends might think you're crazy, but they'll change their minds when they feast their eyes upon the glistening, golden gruel that says, "eat me and I will comfort you." Summer is back, only reconstituted.
A peasant dish, polenta was brought from the New World to the Old World (along with the tomato) by Christopher Columbus. He called corn "granturco." "Turco" was a name given to many things taken from foreign non-Christian lands. Columbus discovered large fields of it in Mayan Mexico. The people there called it "mahiz." Even though he took seed back to his native Spain, it was not appreciated by the European population for another 200 years. They used it only to feed their animals, and stuffed their mattresses with its dried stalks.
In Europe, maize was mostly planted in the north of Italy, around Lombardy and the Veneto. The Lombards take credit for starting to use the grain to cook around 1600. The methods and materials were similar to what the Romans used to make pult, a dish made from ground fava flour. It was cooked in a big pot with aromatic herbs and stirred constantly over a low flame.
Corn is no stranger to the Americas. Native Americans worshiped her as the "corn mother," the one that feeds us all. But the Industrial Revolution has all but exploited her dignity. Corn has been beaten into a fossil fuel and disguised as to-go containers. I take this personally, having grown up in the South. Corn (along with fried catfish) is a part of my blood. I ate grits, fresh corn on the cob, creamed corn and cornbread. It was a staple, part of my culture. Sitting on my aunt Sarah's porch shucking corn was always soulful. For me, a cornfield is a place of beauty and substance. The plant is pure and unadulterated, an international country girl with a heart of gold.
CAVOLO NERO (BLACK CABBAGE OR DINOSAUR KALE)
I am a mad salad eater in the summer, but in winter, I switch to big, bad, bitter greens, sautéed in garlic and olive oil. There's nothing better than kale, collards and the cavolo nero (black cabbage or dinosaur kale to us) that's eaten mostly in Tuscany. My friend Lisa calls it "grezzo e ignorante." Rough and ignorant. She says, "It stinks when you cook it, takes a long time to become tender and then it's still chewy and gets stuck in your teeth." But it nourishes the blood and boots out toxins in the liver. Dark greens are the Navy Seals of the immune system.
Cavolo nero, and other dark greens, can be used as a side dish or, traditionally, as an addition to Ribollita (Tuscan bread and vegetable soup). Cavolo nero grows most happily in the Tuscan countryside. No other regions of Italy use it. Yet, we Americans know a good thing when we see it: Californian farmers started growing it, along with radicchio, because of demand. You can't get cavolo nero in the neighboring region of Emiglia Romagna, but you can get in Boulder and Santa Barbara. I don't mind a portion of grezzo, by the way, on top of my polenta. Esso!
It's cold outside. The fire is crackling. Through my cold windows I see an eagle, flying silently over the mesa. I feel good inside my winter house.
POLENTA FIORENTINA
1 cup fine ground polenta grits or granturco finé
5 cups water
salt to taste
1/4 pound of fontina cheese, grated
1 cup grated parmigiano reggiano
4 tablespoons butter
1 tbs of freshly chopped rosemary
Bring five cups of water to the boil. Add a small palm-full of salt. Most importantly, whisk the grits or fine corn flour into the salted boiling water, to prevent lumping. Turn heat to very low.
It will start to bubble and let off steam. Pay attention that it doesn't burn you.
Stir it often, but not consistently. Let it form a film on the bottom of your pan.
Stir on top of the film, being careful not to disturb the bottom layer.
Let the polenta cook for an hour or so. Baby it. As it starts to thicken, add the chopped rosemary. Cook until you get the consistency you are looking for. It should be soft and smooth, almost like cake batter. Stir in the cheeses and let it marry. Pour a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top. Check taste to see if it needs more salt. Serve hot. Add your sauce as a dollop on top of an individual bowl of polenta, or serve the polenta on a platter with the sauce in the middle and pray that it's as good as the last one.
Sauce alternatives:
Polenta with pesto or layered with pesto
Polenta with cavolo nero
Polenta with gorgonzola
Polenta with sausage and cannellini beans
Polenta with a spicy tomato sauce
SALSA DI FUNGHI FRESCHI dal BOSCO
Fresh forest mushroom sauce
1 lb of gallinelli, chanterelle or your favorite mushrooms
2 shallots, chopped
a clove of garlic, peeled and left whole
salt and pepper
a dash of white wine
several sprigs of thyme, stemmed and sprinkled
Sauté funghi and the whole garlic clove in 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle a pinch of salt, add the thyme and splash a dash of white wine. Toss in the pot until they start to give up their liquid. Don't leave too long on the fire. Let them be soft but not overcooked.
CAVOLO NERO IGNORANTE
1 lb of black cabbage (or dinosaur kale)
3 cloves of fresh garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tbs of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup of water
Clean the cavolo nero by removing the leaves from the stems. Wash well in a large bowl of water. Drain. Chop roughly. Sauté in garlic and olive oil. Add a 1/4 cup of water to steam. Salt to taste. On the plate, add a drizzle of your best extra-virgin olive oil.
PEGGY MARKEL'S Culinary Adventures in Tuscany, Sicily, Morocco and the United States bring friends to the table in pursuit of pleasure, culture and community. She has dedicated the past 14 years to offering groups an authentic experience of the materia prima that make for deep nourishment: peggymarkel.com
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