Polenta Concia Valdostana con Fontina

Valle d'Aosta — Regione intera

Valle d'Aosta's richest winter preparation — coarsely ground polenta stirred for 45 minutes and then enriched with an extraordinary quantity of Fontina DOP (melted into the polenta at the end, off heat) and a full block of butter. When the cheese and butter are added, the polenta transforms from a firm porridge into a flowing, stringy, golden mass that drapes from the spoon. Nothing else is added. Nothing else is needed.

• Melted Gruyère and Emmental enriched with wine and served with bread for dipping — both exploit the extraordinary melting quality of Alpine cheeses at high fat content → Käsefondue with bread Swiss
• Starchy vegetable preparation enriched at the end with extraordinary quantities of fat — both traditions understand that the fat IS the dish, not merely the enrichment → Bashed neeps and champit tatties with cream Scottish
• Alpine cheese melted into a starchy base with generous butter — the Savoie and Valle d'Aosta traditions are structurally identical in their philosophy of excess enrichment → Tartiflette (potato, Reblochon, cream) French · Savoyard

Rich, nutty Fontina creaminess, coarse polenta earthiness, butter richness — extravagant, warming, the most Alpine expression of Italian cooking