Some dishes stick in your mind long after you’ve eaten them. Whether at a friend’s table, or a restaurant, or wherever, the perfect pitch stays ringing in your ears. Back in my days as a food editor, I had the good fortune of eating and learning from many of the great restaurateurs of the day. When I think of quintessentially iconic American restaurants, still running to this day, only a handful come to mind. This dish comes from one of these legendary places, called Al Forno in Providence, Rhode Island. Still run by Johanne Killeen, 46 years later—who created it with her late husband George Germon.
It’s one of those spots where dozens of skilled cooks emerged to form their own establishments and where, as I think of these places (that’ve made the cut in my mind)…the food is always perfect. Before George’s untimely passing, he and Johanne both cooked a meal on the TV show I was working on and visited my Sirius XM radio show to talk about their work.
Now, back to that memorable dish they made that day. It was early September, peak produce time, and George prepared a small mountain of creamy double corn polenta studded with fresh corn kernels. George indented a lakebed in the top of the polenta heap, and filled it with juicy, savory tomatoes doused in olive oil, herbs and salt. Think crater lake on a mountain summit. I’ve never, ever forgotten how it felt to eat that dish. Why it took me so long (20 years?) to recreate, I’ll never know. A couple weeks ago, I found myself with a couple cobs of corn and a few tomatoes with herbs. There was no pasta in the cupboard but there was polenta. The memory lightbulb went off and off I went to recreate this dish from memory.
- Wash and core 4 tomatoes. Chop, place in a bowl, salt and add a generous glug of olive oil.
- Remove the kernels from 2 to 4 ears of corn.
- Boil 1 quart of liquid (water, milk, stock or a combo) with some salt.
- Stir in 1 cup polenta. Continue until the polenta is cooked yet still creamy (add water as needed).
- Add the corn kernels just before the dry corn is cooked (soft).
- Swirl in a handful of grated Parm, a couple chunks of butter and freshly ground pepper.
- Plop some polenta in a bowl. Form a crater on top. Spoon over the tomato mixture. Top with fresh herbs.
-
A dish from Al Forno in Providence that Lucinda never forgot, and finally made from memory twenty years later: creamy double corn polenta with a crater of tomatoes on top. -
Tomatoes, beets and peaches at their peak, together on one platter. Salt, oil, herbs, and nature does the rest. -
Attention salmon lovers!! Did you know that 95 percent of… View Article -
Somehow the sourdough mojo took hold of me. I wasn’t… View Article -
My mom was the kind of home cook who relied… View Article
Comments are closed here.