I’ll use polenta to illustrate this point because, let’s face it, the bar is pretty low when it comes to its initial flavor.
I have spent precious time over the years trying to convince reluctant partakers that polenta is actually worth the sweat.
Instead, the polenta is left as a blank canvas, splashed with roasted-until-golden mushrooms and charred tomatoes.
These do what the cheese usually does: load the polenta with the umami richness it needs to get going.
But it is the finishing oil, spiked with spices and aromatics, that pulls everything together and brightens the polenta in the same way that Parmesan does.
Persons:
partakers, you’ve, isn’t