Traditional Lys Valley Cuisine

Ingredients for 4 people: 1.5 l water - 400 g maize flour - 150 g butter - 200 g Toma cheese.

Place the pot with the water on the fire, sprinkle a handful of flour over it, this will act as a lid, the water will then come to the boil more quickly. Remember to put salt, better in the hot water otherwise it will corrode the bottom of the pot.

As soon as the water boils, sprinkle in the flour, mixing it in so that no grains form until it is cooked, this should take at least 20 minutes or more depending on taste, the longer it stays on the heat the tastier it becomes.

After putting the polenta on a plate, add some butter in an oven dish, a layer of polenta, one of Toma cheese, more butter and so on, cover with the remaining butter, put in the oven, until it makes a nice crispy crust.

Ingredients for 4 people: 800 g beef or veal - 1 medium onion - 1 generous spoonful of tomato sauce - 4 spoonfuls of white flour - 1 glass of red wine - oil - butter - 2 potatoes - 2 carrots - 1 lemon wedge - cinnamon - cloves.

Roast the pieces of meat in half butter and half oil, add the wine, when the wine has been absorbed the pieces of meat are sprinkled with flour, very quickly without letting it brown, at the end add the onion cut into rings and let them brown for a moment, then one or two more potatoes and carrots. While cooking, the potatoes dissolve a little, making the sauce nicely bound. Add stock, cover and cook over a low flame. 

When almost cooked, season the meat to taste with a lemon wedge, a pinch of cinnamon and two cloves.

Ingredients: 1 kg flour - 3 eggs - 150 g sugar - 200 g butter - salt - juice and grated rind of half a lemon - 2/3 tbsp natural cream - 1 small glass of grappa - frying oil.

Mix the flour with all the ingredients until a fairly dense dough is obtained which, when placed on a board, is firm, then give it the shape of a loaf and place it on a bowl. Leave it to rest for two or three hours at room temperature. Now roll out the dough with a pasta machine or rolling pin and cut out regular squares, not too small. Heat the oil in an iron frying pan. Fry the squares, drain when golden brown and sprinkle with sugar.

Polenta is an archaic dish, one of the earliest cooked doughs of mankind.

It was certainly already in use among the Sumerians and in Mesopotamia where it was prepared with millet and rye. 

The Greeks used barley flour and there are countless variations depending on the materials available.