mais

Italians traditionally don't do much with it, besides using it as animal feed (over 80%) and making it into polenta.

Mais is also known as frumentone or granturco or granoturco. Although it came to Europe from the New World, the Italians called it 'Turkish' grain, 'Turkish' being a catch-all description for anything exotic. If you want to find sweet corn on the cob, look for pannocchia.

Many varieties of corn are grown in Italy, including two listed in the Slow Food Presidium: Mais Biancoperla from Abruzzo, with its pearly white grains, famous for making the softest polenta, and Mais Ottofile or formenton otto file, the eight-rowed 'King Corn', introduced by King Vittorio Emanuele II in Piedmont, and used to make both polenta and added, along with wheat flour, to tajarin.

Corn flour