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RE: Diary of an Unbroken Child: My Autobiography- Chap I
Dear Rich, you know that every time I read a bit of your life I feel myself so touched, but you're right, your story is also a story that helps to think there's an hope. PS: When you wrote about your nonna and the polenta I saw the scene in my mind, because during that years it was usual, here in Italy, to eat polenta for breakfast, lunch and dinner too ^_^
I remember she told me that during the Great Depression they would go to the cemetery and pick dandelion greens and that's what they ate- dandelion greens and polenta.
I was a chef at a really expensive Italian Rest. in Madison WI called Lombardino's. The boss came to me and told me he wanted to run a special... dandelion greens & polenta- $25.00 a plate!!! He said put some portabella mushrooms and pancetta for flavor. I asked him if he was nuts??? That's what poor people that can't afford food eat!
$25.00 a plate???? Wow! Really expensive! My father told me that during the II world war everyone in our area eat polenta, but people who lived out of the city was more lucky than the others, because they can eat polenta with mushrooms (they knew where to find the right mushrooms) and with fish from the little rivers. Here in my area there were (and there are) many chestnut trees, so the families here could eat also the polenta made by the chestnut flour. Now these plates are expensive if you eat them in the restaurant, but they are poor plates that saved many people during that hard time.
It's so weird to me... I just can't imagine paying a lot of money to eat poor people food. One thing I made at that restaurant that came out really good (when you said chestnut flour it reminded me) was sweet potato gnocchi. I precooked it and sauteed it with mushrooms in a demi glace.