You know you’ve found some good food writing when the first thing you read causes you to rush home and re-make their meal in your own kitchen. I’m not sure how I missed A Chicken in Every Granny Cart before, but on initial reading I love it. I like the pictures of the city mixed in with food stuffs, and the silly titles, and the general observations of things. And I looooved the idea for asparagus, polenta, and truffled fried eggs. Yum.
Of course, I didn’t have truffle salt, but only truffle oil. And I never made polenta before in my life. In fact, I’ve never had polenta before, at all. I’ve never even seen it. So whether mine turned out right is still a complete mystery to me. It was edible. I thought it was good. Was it proper polenta? I have no clue. Oh, and also? I’m crap at frying eggs. But truffle oil has the ability to make everything wonderful. Everything.
I don’t know why I’ve been eating so many eggs lately. I’ve taken to hard-boiling an egg every morning to add to my lunch salads, and I never even liked hard-boiled eggs before. I’ve been having egg salad sandwich cravings, and thinking of trying to make deviled eggs (another thing I’ve never tasted before in my life). I never thought myself an eggs-for-dinner kind of girl, but there I was last night, frying up an egg at 6:30 in the evening. Strange. And delicious.
Polenta with Pan Roasted Asparagus and Truffled Eggs
- 2 c. water
- 1 tsp. salt
- a bit more than 1/2 c. corn meal (technically, 7/12 of a cup and yes I just had to do math)
- 1 T. butter
- 1/4 c. grated pecorino romano cheese, or parmesan
- 1 T. olive oil
- 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 small bunch of aparagus, trimmed
- 2 small plum tomatoes, chopped into large pieces
- 2 eggs
- a bit of a drizzle of truffle oil
- salt and pepper
I followed Giada’s recipe, as I am wont to do these days, for polenta. Her explication had me a little confused, though. She wrote in one place that polenta should take 30 to 40 minutes, and then in the actual recipe only cooks it for 15 minutes. I made only a third of the recipe, and it seemed to not even take 15 minutes. Again, I have no freaking clue if my polenta was right. It was good, and barely lumpy, if that means anything. It seems not as complicated as I’ve always read that it is, so that has to be a sign that I didn’t do it right.
First, bring the water to boil in a large sauce pan. When it’s up to a rolling boil, add the salt, and slowly stream in the cornmeal, all the while whisking away to break up corn meal lumps and, I guess, make it become polenta. Whisk and whisk and whisk until all the cornmeal is in the water, and then lower the heat to low. I’ve heard that you’re supposed to stir it continually. I’ve heard that it’s best to leave it alone a bit, and only give it a good stir when you happen past. I’ve heard that polenta is a pain in the ass. I went with the stirring occasionally method, because I had asparagus to cook.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet, and add the garlic, and a bit of salt and pepper. Saute it for maybe 30 seconds, then add the asparagus. Get it all nice and coated in oil, then add the tomatoes, and cover the whole skillet. Let it cook away for probably about five minutes while you go stir polenta and maybe wash up some dishes. Then you can take the lid off the skillet, and stir it all up a bit. Let it keep cooking, uncovered, for another five minutes, until the tomatoes start to break down. Then remove everything to a plate and wipe out the skillet. Or just use another skillet for the eggs, which is what I should have done, because my eggs stuck like crazy to the tomatoed skillet.
Fry up the eggs the way you like them fried. At this point the polenta seemed done, and was pulling away from the sides of the pan the way it was supposed to. Stir in the butter and the cheese until it’s all well mixed in and melted.
Then you’re pretty much done and there’s just assembly required–a bit of polenta, topped with some asparagus and tomato, topped with the fried egg, and drizzled all over with truffle oil. Mmmmm, truffle oil. Some fresh basil would probably have been awesome sauce on this and I’m kicking myself for not having thought of that last night.
This felt wildly indulgent and delicious. Of course, I couldn’t stop thinking the whole time I ate it that I had no clue whether the polenta was right. Sigh. I guess I’ll have to go out to a restaurant and eat polenta sometime before I attempt to cook it again. What a sacrifice.