Turkey Meatballs in Lazy Marinara Sauce with Parmesan Polenta
It was just about one-and-a-half years ago that I discovered polenta on a trip to northern Italy. It was in Bergamo's Città Alta, sitting under a star-vaulted veranda in a restaurant named after the city's famous son and opera composer Donizetti, that I converted to cornmeal. It's funny because cornmeal is quite popular in Hungarian cooking, yet in my childhood my family never ate it. It took a trip to Bergamo for me to discover the merits of puliszka as it's called in Hungarian. I think Hungarians love cornmeal almost as much as the Italians. As a recent convert to polenta, lately I've been finding all kinds of meals to pair it with. I love it with a fish curry, topped with a mushroom ragu , or served with meatballs--my favorite pairing so far. I might even say it's better than spaghetti and meatballs! But you'll have to find out for yourself. Instead of making my meatballs with beef, pork, and/or veal, I love meatballs with either chicken or turkey...