June 10 2004, 12:01 AM Compound Interest

There is a book, a fine little book by Paula Wolfert called Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco. She points out the title in the book, admitting that what was to be a glorious comprehensive stomp through Moroccan cuisine turned out to be an exploratory mission, stumbling through the slim streets and alleys of Casablanca and Fez and everywhere else. The telling part is this; there is a light touch near the beginning of the book that is an excellent example of the twists of the journey, a cheerful handful of sentences about egg sellers, who sell hard boiled eggs from street carts, dipping them in a powdery mix of salt and toasted cumin. I read of this lying in bed. I am not ashamed to say that I got out of bed, toasted some cumin and ground it with salt, boiled an egg, and ate same with said. I am not ashamed because it really was that good, and I have been richer since I ate it.

There is a book, again, and also a fine thing: Pass the Polenta, a small treasury of essays with recipes brought forth by a woman named Teresa Lust. The catcher here is the bit about the polenta itself; the woman almost got me out of bed, too, except we didn't have all the necessary cheese.

To that end: buy some cheese. Buy some mozzarella, as fancy as you like - we opted for the creamy white domestic we usually bake with. Get some gorgonzola, as pointed as you like - we tend to gravitate toward the less hostile of these cheeses. Find some Parmisano Reggiano, as before. Fontina and Provolone are also useful here, should one want. The first three were enough for us. Gather your cheeses, and head home to start on the stew.

Beef stew, this; I did a rather standard procedural of browning the stew meat, then cooking down onion and carrot with a bay leaf or two, then adding in tomato and the beef, topping off with a bit of wine, and cooking until it was done. The important flavors are the beef and the wine, but stew is stew. Stew as you will.

When the stew is done, make some polenta; corn crossed with water is all that is needed here. When the polenta has thickened, prepare!

Everyone gets a dish. Into the dish goes a glop of polenta. Atop this golden bed place pieces of the gorgonzola, fontina, mozzarella, and provelone, as available. Glallop a good ladle of stew over this, then do it again. Grate the parmesan over top.

(It was pointed out at the time that having the gorgonzola mixed in to the polenta was so fine a thing that one could simply stop right there, but I chose to press on, press on.)

Eat.

I do not tell this tale as well as Lust does, but it remains a most remarkable thing. Her book holds many remarkable things. We ate a meal of polenta and stew and cheese with the stewing wine beside, and stumbled off into the night, dizzy with the smells and filling warmth. Give it a try. I have been richer since I ate it.