Tony Luppino, the executive director of the Art Gallery of Alberta, sizzles in the kitchen with Penny Ritco, the general manager of the Citadel Theatre. After living all over the world, Luppino chose to call Edmonton home.

Click on the "Watch Video" link to find out what drew him to our city and how his travels have influenced his cooking.

Gnocchi di Polenta con Gorgonzola
Baked Polenta Gnocchi with Gorgonzola

Serves four.

500 g      fine polenta (fine corn meal – yellow)
1.5  litre  water
               course salt pepper
1             bay leaf
30 g        butter
30 g        all purpose flour
1/4 litre   milk
150 g     Gorgonzola cheese
100 g     Swiss Emental, grated

Boil the water with course salt in a very large pot. A trick of the Milanese is to add a bay leaf to the water to give a subtle but distinctive flavour to the polenta. It’s especially good for plain polenta, but works well with this recipe too. 

Slowly sprinkle in the polenta while stirring with a wooden spoon so lumps don’t form. Continue stirring at medium or low heat for 40-45 minutes. This is the heavy duty part of the preparation and really builds muscles, but it’s worth using “real” polenta instead of that five minute automatic stuff.

As soon as the polenta is cooked and still hot and flowing, pour it out onto a clean surface (Luppino suggests using the kitchen counter because it can spread, and is great for doubling or tripling the recipe.) 

Smooth the polenta with the flat side of a wet knife or spatula to make a sheet about 1 cm high. You have to move pretty fast to get this to work without the polenta coming apart. Remove the bay leaf that will show up somewhere.

While the polenta is cooling on the counter, prepare a “besciamella” (essentially a white sauce). 

Warm the milk. Melt the butter in a casserole on the stove top and add the flour, stirring with a wooden spoon. As soon as the flour/butter mixture is lightly coloured a sort of yellow, begin diluting it with the warm milk, stirring all the while. Season with some salt, cook at a low temperature for ten minutes.

Add the gorgonzola cheese- cut into little pieces- and season with lots of freshly ground black pepper and stir until you have a smooth thick sauce.

Leave the “besciamella” in a double boiler or someplace where it will remain warm- but not continue to cook- while you prepare the gnocchi of polenta.

Cut the cooled polenta into little discs- you can be fancy and use one of those scalloped circular cookie cutter type things or, Luppino suggests using a glass and dipping it in water after every few discs.

Butter a large oven proof dish or pan – ceramic high border dish or a Pyrex oven lasagna type dish works well. Arrange the polenta disks or gnocchi in rows overlapping them a bit. Cover the gnocchi with the prepared sauce and sprinkle the grated Emental cheese over the top.

Cook in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes until the sauce is thick and the top browned.

If you use a terra cotta dish, it looks very Italian and “rustic” on the table and can be served form the baking dish onto plates so that it remains warm while all guests are served. 

Luppino uses this as a first dish before a roast of pork, but it can also be a main dish with just a salad for a light lunch. One of the best parts of this dish is that it pairs well with all sorts of wine, from sweetish whites to dry hearty reds.