Ciao a Tutti!

We are back in business this week, and with us between the burners is the invigoratingly vibrant Nonna Yolanda. After our one week hiatus I'm anxious to get back in the kitchen and Nonna Yolanda has quite the meal in store for us. This week: Polenta, Sausage and Cime di Rape (broccoli rabe).

Since it's the season of frequent impromptu week end gatherings, sometimes it can be daunting to prepare a filling meal for a small army. Enter the polenta. What's great about polenta is the rapid expansion it goes through once it's cooked. A cup of this magical cornmeal and you've got quite the base for your meal. Of course, polenta never travels alone, so nestled inside our pillowy yellow grain is some extra spicy sausage. Calabrese cooking is seldom found without a key ingredient used to put a kick in the meal and beads of sweat on the forehead of the eater. While that may be a slight exaggeration, anyone from Calabria or whose eaten Calabrian cuisine will tell you about the legendary fire in their cooking. As always, if you're sensitive to spicy foods, sweet sausage will make a more than adequate substitution. Our third and final player in our cast is the venerable broccoli rabe. The sensual bitterness of the green adds the perfect counterpoint to the sausage, and lends its flavor ever so slightly to the polenta, making for a triumvirate of flavors that will never cease to impress.

Nonna Yolanda was another in our line of truly wonderful Nonne. Calabrese cuisine can be tricky, especially when dealing with more complex recipes, but for those days when you need to supply a filling meal in a flash, look no further than this delightful recipe from our even more delightful Nonna Yolanda. Thank you, Nonna Yolanda, and thank you out there for watching. Until next week...


Tanti baci,

Rossella