Sheana texts me one afternoon to say that she has clipped a recipe for Polenta Budino with Plum Marmaletta from her Bon Appetit magazine, and would I like to come over to make some with her. I dunno what a Budino is, and I guess I betta learn about a Marmaletta. But she mentions something about vanilla ice cream being involved, so I’m in.

Turns out Budino is a sweet custard or pudding. Marmaletta, as you may have guessed, is a jam or marmalade. Polenta in a sweet dish is a new concept to me, but I’m up for anything involving ice cream and fruit jam.

You cook the polenta in water and whisk until thickened. Then you add sugar, brown sugar, and salt, and keep whisking, cooking until the polenta is tender. This all takes about 30 minutes, after which you remove from the heat and whisk in some butter.

Then you whisk an egg yolk and cream mixture (also vigorously whisked) into the polenta. There’s a lot of whisking involved. You transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, which you press onto the surface of the polenta. I’ve no idea why, but the recipe said to do this, so we did.

Meanwhile, you simmer sugar, lemon juice, salt, and half your cut up plums for about 15 minutes. Add half your remaining plums and cook another 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the rest of the plums.

At this point you’re supposed to cover and let both the polenta and the marmaletta cool. But if you’re like us, you stick them both in the fridge to hurry along the cooling process. Then you wait as long as you can, which in our case ended up being about 10 minutes. Impatience and hunger got the better of us. We stirred the polenta Budino and scooped some into bowls, added spoonfuls of plum Marmaletta and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, then drizzled a bit more Marmaletta. You know, for presentation.

By the time all this was done, it was pretty much dinner time. I was happy enough to eat this for dinner. The polenta was creamy with a subtle sweetness and a touch of salty. The Marmaletta is mostly fruit, to help make it a balanced meal, right? And if I could figure out how to incorporate ice cream into more of my dinners, I would.