Summer and winter, polenta cream recipe with seafood

Summer and winter come together in this dish where the flavors of the mountains are combined with those of the sea: polenta cream with seafood.

If polenta is associated with cold winter climates, fireplaces and snow, seafood is associated with sun and beaches. Normally one is used to pairing seafood with spaghetti or a nice seafood risotto, but this has always seemed reductive to me.

This is why I wanted to try this combination which seems unusual but turned out to be a riot of emotions where memories of the past season intertwine with the current one.

The recipe starts from what I managed to find at the market where mussels, clams and cockles were on display on the counter to which I added small cuttlefish and prawns.

Polenta cream recipe with seafood

To start this dish, therefore, we start by cleaning the seafood which we open by blanching the mussels, clams and cockles separately (be careful not to throw away the cooking water). The molluscs are set aside and the small cuttlefish are cleaned and then cut into strips. Then we take the prawns that we clean and cut coarsely.

At this point we are ready to cook: take a pan and gently fry the chopped garlic and parsley and a little chilli. Then we add the cuttlefish and the chopped prawns for quick cooking.

Add the desalted capers, the Taggiasca olives, a little oregano and the tomato pulp and let everything flavor. For cooking, add part of the liquid from the clams and mussels, mix and taste to adjust the salt and cook to obtain a restricted sauce. Only at this point do we add some clams, mussels and cockles.

Prepare the polenta by boiling water with a little salt and, when it comes to a boil, add the polenta flour a little at a time and stir to avoid lumps forming.

Halfway through cooking, add a knob of butter to make it softer and creamier and, once cooked, pour it into a dish and dress it with the fish sauce.

In the glass I chose a Friulian Pinot Grigio.