Polenta and sage flatbreads

This week we received a message in our mailbox (info@thequotidiancook.com) questioning our obsession against processed foods. Our reader argues that thanks to canned and packed products he has a more convenient and quick way to organize his pantry and meals. He called us retro and anti-technology and mentioned the example of instant polenta (which cooks in 5 minutes) compared with natural polenta (40 minutes) adding that there is no difference in nutrients or additives or anything else between the two types. Agghhhhhh! The quotidian cooks started circling the room in astonishment, our scarce hair standing on air: the flavor, dear reader, the flavor!

We took a rest and after combing and putting ourselves together, the quotidian cooks held an executive meeting (in our kitchen) and decided to talk about flavor in food while we cook a recipe with natural polenta. We are all quite aware of the degradation and standardization of flavors caused by the food industry. How many times in the past years we have exclaimed: These tomatoes taste like cardboard!?

While we forget more and more the original flavors of our favorite foods, the food industry continues developing a new trend: flavor technology. There are already more than two thousand artificial flavors, created in a laboratory and used as additives in beverages, bread, preserves and most processed foods. Let’s look at our dearest tomato. Scientists have identified sixteen volatile compounds which are responsible of its flavour and aroma (among others, Z-3 Hexenal and Geranial in the graphic). These are re-created in the lab and through a flavor engineering process they are combined in order to market a natural tomato flavoring.

The chemical in tomato. Compound Interest 2014. Reproduced under Creative Commons license.

The replacement of real flavors by artificial ones generates a chain of disastrous consequences. Flavor in food always had a nutritional value, that is, it is an indicator telling our brain: this is good for me! And while the flavors blur, the interest in traditional recipes gets lost. How will we enjoy a gazpacho if tomatoes have no taste? It´s impossible! Under this regime of things, our brain is more attracted to processed products in which poor flavors have been boosted with added flavorings in order to make them stronger, more appealing and more commercial. We are gradually becoming insensitive to tastes without additives as we develop an addiction to food literally engineered by flavor geniuses. Needless to describe the terrible consequences of this substitution for our children, who will grow without knowing the taste of bread, or a good tomato, and will therefore ignore the taste of their own family’s traditional cuisine.

So if we decided to cook polenta with non-processed corn, despite its laborious preparation, it is because it conveys the natural flavor that we want to offer in food. It is true that the nutritional attributes in natural polenta and the instant version are almost the same. But the flavour and texture are not, and obviously, we insist on sharing our recipes with its cultural value: its flavor.

In today’s recipe we combine the polenta with its scent of moist earth and corn with the herbal and vegetable liquorish taste of sage. We want to offer you a very clean flavor profile using these two ingredients as a base to elaborate beautiful vegetable flatbreads.

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We can make these flatbreads with multiple combinations: onion, asparagus, roasted peppers, artichokes… whatever we wish. In order to prepare the flatbreads we have to shape them when the polenta is still warm.

Once shaped with the spatula, we cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least eight hours. The following day, they are ready to be topped up with the ingredients. In this case we have made a version of the traditional Catalan onion and paprika flatbread and a second one with asparagus and anchovies. This is how they look once mounted, ready to go to the oven.

This recipe exhales a Mediterranean breeze. The mild taste of the polenta and the sage accents allow to combine your favorite  vegetables like in a symphony. Now we will remain silent because… you are the conductor!

Polenta and sage flatbreads

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

60 mins

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

 

Author: TQC

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 cup natural polenta
• A bunch of fresh sage
• Two medium-sized white onions
• One teaspoon of paprika from the Vera Valley in Spain or simply paprika
• Three small tomatoes
• Salt and pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

1. Bring a litre of water to the boil with two teaspoons of salt.
2. Add the polenta and when it boils again, lower the heat again and cook gently during 40-45 minutes.
3. Whisk every five minutes in order to avoid sticking to the bottom of the pot.
4. Once cooked, add a pinch of ground pepper and stir well.
5. Divide the polenta in two equal halves on baking paper previously smeared with oil.
6. With the spatula (smeared with a bit of oil) flatten the dough to a thickness of less than half inch. Shape the flatbreads to match your baking tray, and allow to cool down (see photos in post).
7. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 8-10 hours.
8. Cut the onion in strips and mix in a bowl with two tablespoons of olive oil and the paprika.
9. Season with salt and stir well with your hands.
10. Spread the onion over the flatbread and add about eight or ten sage leaves and the tomatoes cut in halves.
11. Warm the oven up to 200 °C and cook the flatbreads in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, until toasted and crispy.

Culinary Tips

Using a good polenta is essential. The traditional polenta is made with a flint corn variety called Otto file (eight-row flint) with a vivid yellow colour. Find a local polenta or corn grits by asking your grocer about the variety of corn used and the milling date.

We brought you a vegan recipe but you can change it to its italian version adding butter and grated parmesan cheese just at the end of cooking.
In order to get crunchy flatbreads it is essential that the base is less than half inch thick and that they refrigerate overnight.
Sage fresh leaves have a very pungent flavor. If you are not familiar to it we recommend you initially use only 4-6 leaves per flatbread.
This base is very versatile and we encourage you to try other vegetable combinations: sage, roasted peppers, onion, capers and pine nuts, or also: sage, artichokes, anchovies and mozzarella.

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