Recipe: Claudia Roden’s cheese polenta cubes are crisp on the outside and creamy inside - The Boston Globe (2024)

Makes 54

Egyptian-born author Claudia Roden left Cairo as a young woman, went to Paris to boarding school, and eventually to London, where she studied art and finally settled. She wrote one of first books on Middle Eastern cooking 30 years ago, and went on to write nearly a dozen more. Her latest, "Claudia Roden's Mediterranean: Treasured Recipes from a Lifetime of Travel," is a compilation of recipes from around the Mediterranean Sea. Her food is a little like the late Elizabeth David's -- simple, yet very appealing -- and her writing, after years of stopping by remote places and finding good cooks, is personal and enlightening. About polenta, she writes this in the new volume: "It is amazing how polenta keeps reinventing itself. Originally the despised porridge of a desperately poor northern Italian peasantry, it appeared in restaurants in the 1980s as a thin, grilled triangle or as a creamy base for elegant food." In this version, which makes cubes of polenta that are crisp on the outside and creamy inside, you make soft polenta by whisking coarsely ground cornmeal (sometimes labeled "yellow corn grits") into boiling water and cooking it for about 10 minutes. Then you beat in Parmesan, a soft cheese such as Fontina, and rosemary. Spread the mixture in a baking dish so it's 1-inch thick and refrigerate until the polenta is solid. Cut into cubes, brush them all over with olive oil, and send to the oven to brown. Roden uses a 475-degree oven but you can get faster results under the broiler (not too close); watch them carefully.

1. Have on hand an 8-by-12-inch baking dish. Line it with foil, pressing it into the corners. Brush the foil with olive oil.

2. In a large saucepan, combine the water and salt. Bring to a boil. Pour in the polenta and whisk vigorously until the water returns to a boil. Lower the heat and cook, whisking constantly, for 3 minutes or until the mixture is smooth with no lumps. The polenta will gurgle and splatter, so cover your hand with a cloth, if necessary. Add the Parmesan and Fontina, Fontal, or Taleggio cheeses with the rosemary, and a pinch of pepper.

3. Cover the pan and continue cooking over very low heat, whisking occasionally, for 8 minutes.

4. Pour the polenta into the pan and smooth the top. The mixture should be 1-inch thick. If necessary, fold up one end of the foil to make the polenta the correct thickness. Smooth the top, press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the polenta, and leave to cool completely.

5. Refrigerate the dish for at least 4 hours or for up to 2 days.

6. Turn on the broiler and set a shelf 6 to 8 inches from the element. Have on hand a large rimmed baking sheet.

7. Lift the rectangle of polenta out of the baking dish and transfer it to a cutting board. Make 8 horizontal cuts and 5 vertical cuts to form 54 cubes. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons olive oil onto the baking sheet. Transfer the cubes to the sheet and with your hands, turn them all over in the oil to coat them all over.

8. Slide the baking sheet under the broiler and broil for 4 minutes, watching the cubes carefully, or until they are turning golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and use a wide metal spatula to turn the cubes over. Return to the oven and broil again for 4 minutes, or until the cubes are golden.

9. Arrange the cubes on a platter, sprinkle with coarse salt and rosemary. Serve hot.

Sheryl Julian. Adapted from "Claudia Roden's Mediterranean"

Makes 54

Egyptian-born author Claudia Roden left Cairo as a young woman, went to Paris to boarding school, and eventually to London, where she studied art and finally settled. She wrote one of first books on Middle Eastern cooking 30 years ago, and went on to write nearly a dozen more. Her latest, "Claudia Roden's Mediterranean: Treasured Recipes from a Lifetime of Travel," is a compilation of recipes from around the Mediterranean Sea. Her food is a little like the late Elizabeth David's -- simple, yet very appealing -- and her writing, after years of stopping by remote places and finding good cooks, is personal and enlightening. About polenta, she writes this in the new volume: "It is amazing how polenta keeps reinventing itself. Originally the despised porridge of a desperately poor northern Italian peasantry, it appeared in restaurants in the 1980s as a thin, grilled triangle or as a creamy base for elegant food." In this version, which makes cubes of polenta that are crisp on the outside and creamy inside, you make soft polenta by whisking coarsely ground cornmeal (sometimes labeled "yellow corn grits") into boiling water and cooking it for about 10 minutes. Then you beat in Parmesan, a soft cheese such as Fontina, and rosemary. Spread the mixture in a baking dish so it's 1-inch thick and refrigerate until the polenta is solid. Cut into cubes, brush them all over with olive oil, and send to the oven to brown. Roden uses a 475-degree oven but you can get faster results under the broiler (not too close); watch them carefully.

1. Have on hand an 8-by-12-inch baking dish. Line it with foil, pressing it into the corners. Brush the foil with olive oil.

2. In a large saucepan, combine the water and salt. Bring to a boil. Pour in the polenta and whisk vigorously until the water returns to a boil. Lower the heat and cook, whisking constantly, for 3 minutes or until the mixture is smooth with no lumps. The polenta will gurgle and splatter, so cover your hand with a cloth, if necessary. Add the Parmesan and Fontina, Fontal, or Taleggio cheeses with the rosemary, and a pinch of pepper.

3. Cover the pan and continue cooking over very low heat, whisking occasionally, for 8 minutes.

4. Pour the polenta into the pan and smooth the top. The mixture should be 1-inch thick. If necessary, fold up one end of the foil to make the polenta the correct thickness. Smooth the top, press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the polenta, and leave to cool completely.

5. Refrigerate the dish for at least 4 hours or for up to 2 days.

6. Turn on the broiler and set a shelf 6 to 8 inches from the element. Have on hand a large rimmed baking sheet.

7. Lift the rectangle of polenta out of the baking dish and transfer it to a cutting board. Make 8 horizontal cuts and 5 vertical cuts to form 54 cubes. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons olive oil onto the baking sheet. Transfer the cubes to the sheet and with your hands, turn them all over in the oil to coat them all over.

8. Slide the baking sheet under the broiler and broil for 4 minutes, watching the cubes carefully, or until they are turning golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and use a wide metal spatula to turn the cubes over. Return to the oven and broil again for 4 minutes, or until the cubes are golden.

9. Arrange the cubes on a platter, sprinkle with coarse salt and rosemary. Serve hot.Sheryl Julian. Adapted from "Claudia Roden's Mediterranean"