Miegele

INGREDIENTS: 

  ¾ cup olive oil                                                           2 cups polenta (cornmeal)

  2 tablespoons crushed red pepper                           1 cup water  

  5-6 whole cloves of garlic, peeled                            1 can pinto beans

  2 bunches of Mustard Green, Broccoli rabe or Swiss chard, or combinaion, washed well

  Prepare the greens, removing any stems or hard ribs from the greens.  Fill a saucepan with water to vover the green and add a pinch or two of salt. Cook the mustard greens, dandelion greens, broccoli rabe, Swiss chard or whatever greens you are using until tender.  I  have sometimes sauteed the greens in the olive oi, but they need to be cooked long enough to get tender.  Your preference depends on the greens, but I prefer to cook the greens in boiling water to soften them.  

   Now make the polenta (cornmeal). You can follow the instructions on the package but typically it is one part water to two parts cornmeal.  Use some of the water from the greens.  Spray a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with cooking spray or olive oil or line a pan with a parchment paper.  Spead out the cornmeal and then tap the top with water, it will help to make a nice crust if you like a crispier cornmeal.  Cook the cornmeal in the oven until it is firm and cooked.  When the cornmeal is cooked take it out and let it cool, then cut it up or crumble it into little pieces and set aside.

    In a saucepan, sauté the garlic and red pepper in the olive oil carefully to cook the garlic slowly so that it does not burn.  When the greens are tender, add them to the olive  oil, garlic and pepper and mix well. Then add the pinto beans.  Stir well and set aside.  You can eat them just as they are if you like and skip the cornmeal.  But the cornmeal was always my mother’s favorite part, and it is mine too.  When the greens are ready, add the crumbled cornmeal and mix it well with the olive oil, garlic and greens. ​

    The finished product is what we call miegele.  I am not sure about the origin of this dish. I have seen similar dishes from others in Abruzzo called “pizz e foje” my mother never called it this, it was always miegele to us.  But I know it was one of the staple dishes my parents used to make in Italy and then continued to make when they came to the United States.  I suppose it came from the abundance of greens that they had from working their farmland in the foothills of the Maiela Mountain in Abruzzo.  Most of our family still lives on the land where my father and mother were born and where they lived.  Several years before my mother died, my parents sold the last of their land to relatives.  This of course is a grace as we are able to go back and visit and walk through the same land where our parents worked and lived.