Authentic Italian food: Pollo Cacciatore con Polenta

I believe I have access to some of the most authentic Italian food in all of Italy! What a gift! My landlords are 77 and 83 respectively, and as such the style of Italian food they make I believe to be more pure than the food of some of the younger Italians or even many of the local restaurants. Their knowledge and experiences go back farther than others, and they tell me of the origins and stories related to their dishes.

Yesterday my landlords invited me over to lunch. An invitation is not really necessary, as they live upstairs we see them almost daily and if I were to pop over for a visit, they would force food on me regardless of my predetermined presence or not. If you have ever seen the tv show “Everybody Loves Raymond”, the matriarch Marie is Italian and often forces food on visitors. Every Italian stereotype along this line I have found to be true. I will go upstairs to give them the rent, ask a question, or simply to say hello and they will ask if I would like food. On Thursday I replied, “Oh, thank you very much, but we [Adam and I] have just eaten our lunch.” Marcellina frowned, “Oh no! no!” (They get very loud and excited) She pulled out a chair and commanded, “Sit down.” “Bread? Cheese? Wine? Pasta?” I kid you not. And this occurs just about every visit. Ever present on the Italian table is a bowl of bread and cheese, likely next to an oversized bottle of wine (The Italians drink wine like it was water and there was a constant need to stay hydrated. No one would raise an eyebrow to wine consumed before noon).

Despite not needing an invitation, they asked me to come over on Saturday for a special lunch and not to eat breakfast so I would be sure to be hungry. An Italian breakfast consists of coffee and biscotti, so if we are ever invited over to lunch, the landlord is sure to remind us to skip “American breakfast” because we won’t be having a light lunch.

I learn so much about Italian food each time I am with them. Having a little one also adds a new dynamic as they teach me about customary foods for Italian little ones, but that would be a significant tangent from this post, which is about my lunch of Chicken and Polenta!

Here is a short video I took, because it is far more interesting than me writing it all out. I missed the beginning when she turned over the pot and dumped it out. Note the large wine bottle on the table, and the special board used for the polenta. 

If you have never had Polenta, it is cornmeal boiled into porridge; as such, it tastes rather like cornbread but with a mushier consistency. As you heard in the video, it is never eaten alone. Usually the sauce of the main dish is poured over it. A comment I found particularly interesting from Albano, mentioned as we were consuming the dish, was that they now add things to the Polenta to try and “fix” it because: “The corn now is not as good as it was 60 years ago…”, he said. He listed several things that they often add to it in an attempt to “fix” it, like olive oil and milk, but he insisted that it was still not as good as it used to be. His comment, due to the number of years mentioned, made me pause to think. Roughly 2.5 of my lifetimes ago, he remembers how the corn tasted, and it was better. A time like that seems so far out of my reach, and I am disappointed that modern food has degraded as it has. 

Below is a picture of the entire dish. My landlords raised the chicken and then butchered it themselves. Aside from the rare purchase of beef or fish, they never buy their own meat as they raise chickens and turkeys themselves.

Chicken Cacciatore with Polenta. It was delicious and I had three helpings.  

In Italian, Cacciatore means “hunter”. So if you ever see a dish that says “alla cacciatore”, it means it is served “hunter style”, with tomatoes, onions, and other vegetables and herbs. 

And the relatives among my readership are likely asking, where my little one was throughout all of this? He napped in one of the guest bedrooms as we ate.

I have a picture where I put him in focus, and this one where the nob and key are in focus. I liked this one best.

I hope you enjoyed this food post! You got to hear some Italian, learn about their cuisine, and see pictures of the food and experiences we are having here (such an amazing opportunity!). I am only sorry I couldn’t find a way for you to also taste it. You’ll just have to come visit for that one ;)