Polenta has always played an important role in the Ossola diet. Rich and sophisticated, it always immediately sates your hunger, though it is not particularly nutritious when unaccompanied by cheese or meat.
There are many traditional recipes for preparing excellent polenta, starting with local flour (in Beura, Lower Ossola, a flour is produced from the native corn, which is celebrated with a dedicated festival): its flavours and tastes change according to cooking time, to the flour/water ratio and to the way it is served, hot or cold or sautéed in a pan or on the fire, with added fat, butter or eggs.
Bognanco polenta, made with meat sauce, cheese, béchamel and mushrooms, is certainly delicious, while a simpler dish combines polenta and rabbit meat. Krosti brie from Valle Formazza, which is made with white flour, is particularly distinct.
In Lower Ossola, you can sample Margarin, a special type of polenta with milk, while the best-known recipe in Valle Vigezzo is polenta dei buratt (woodsman’s polenta): buckwheat polenta is reduced to balls containing small pieces of local cheese toasted under ash.
Polenta di buscaròi was made in other Ossola valleys with corn flour rapidly cooked in a little water in a copper pot over a direct, strong flame, ensuring that the Alpine workers and woodsmen did not waste any time.
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