Polenta with beef stewed in wine
Polenta with beef stewed in wine is a popular regional dish in Valle d’Aosta in Italy. It usually has a mix of cheese from Valle d’Aosta, butter and stews. And for the polenta, people can choose to add vegetable stock for a stronger taste. Asota Valley is considered to be a part of the Northern Italy, In Northern Italy people prefer Risotto or Polenta over pasta, this explains why there is polenta in this Dish. Furthermore, due to the geographical location is close to France and Swiss, many dishes are also influenced by it, this is why the beef stewed in wine draws similarities with a regional French dish “Coq au Vin” which means chicken in wine, with the exception that often leftover wine is used in this beef stewed dish. In the past, people also have to climb over the mountains to travel to another place, therefore by adding wine in the beef it meets the calorific demands of the day. This dish is plated by putting the polenta under the beef stewed on a glass plate. This reminds me of the book “Recipes from my mother’s kitchen” by Grossi, just like Polenta with beef stewed in wine, the cuisine in that book are very traditional and family-orientated, by using leftover wine in the beef stewed it connects the idea that people in the past don’t waste food, because they were in a scarcity of resources. I did not know that Italian will use leftover wine for their dish, they are proud of the wine they produced, therefore, I thought they will be very strict on which wine should be use in what dish.
