Polenta on the board (polenta sulla spianatora)

The spianatora is the big wooden board on which homemade pasta is rolled out. In winter it became the shared «plate» for polenta: it was poured on hot, levelled, covered with sauce and placed in the middle of the table.

The classic topping is tomato sauce with sausages, sometimes with pork spare ribs, and plenty of pecorino. Everyone eats from their own side with a fork, and whoever reaches the sausages in the centre first… wins.

For the polenta

• 500 g maize flour for polenta
• 2 litres water
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt
• A drizzle of oil

For the sauce

• 6 pork sausages
• 1 litre tomato passata
• 1 onion
• Half a glass of red wine
• Extra virgin olive oil, salt, chilli
• 100 g grated pecorino

1. Make the sauce: brown the sausages in pieces in a pan with oil and chopped onion; deglaze with the wine.
2. Add the passata, salt and chilli and simmer for about an hour.
3. For the polenta, bring the salted water to the boil with a drizzle of oil and pour in the flour in a stream, whisking to avoid lumps.
4. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon over low heat for 40–50 minutes (or the time on the packet), until the polenta comes away from the sides.
5. Wet the board with a little water, pour on the hot polenta and spread it evenly with a spatula.
6. Cover with the sauce, put the sausages in the centre and sprinkle with pecorino. Bring it to the table and all eat from the board.

• The polenta should be soft: if it is too firm, add a little boiling water while cooking.
• If you have no spianatora, use a large clean wooden chopping board.
• Leftover polenta, sliced, is toasted on the grill the next day.

We do not have photos of this dish yet: the image is an illustration made for this page.

Maize polenta reached the Abruzzo mountains in the 17th and 18th centuries and soon became the everyday food of farming and shepherd families.

Eating it from the same board saved plates and firewood, but it was also a festive moment: many village festivals still serve it this way.