Pulenda — Chestnut Polenta: The Historical Staple of the Corsican Interior

Corsica — upland interior; Castagniccia, Niolu, Alta Rocca; historical staple predating wheat penetration.

Pulenda is the defining dish of Corsican chestnut cuisine — a stiff polenta made from farine de châtaigne corse and water, cooked in a copper or iron cauldron (polentaru) over an open fire or wood-burning range, stirred continuously for thirty to forty minutes with a long wooden paddle. As the chestnut flour hydrates and the starch granules swell and burst, the mixture thickens from a pale batter to a dense, almost bread-like dough that pulls cleanly from the cauldron sides. The finished pulenda is turned out onto a damp cloth and sliced with a length of twine or wire — knife-cutting is considered incorrect and compresses the texture. It is traditionally served immediately alongside figatellu (grilled fresh liver sausage), brocciu, and coppa or lonzu — the chestnut providing the starch base, the charcuterie providing fat and salt, the fresh cheese providing acidity and coolness. Pulenda is not a side dish in the Italian polenta sense — it is the centre of the plate, the structural element around which everything else is arranged. In the upland villages of the Castagniccia and Niolu regions, pulenda made from the season's first-milled flour, eaten immediately after harvest, is a ritual meal marking the chestnut season's beginning.

Dense chestnut sweetness; smoky from flour drying; absorbs flavour of accompanying charcuterie fat; clean starch finish.