Polenta

The thing about polenta is that it is versatile enough to be used with many favourite pasta sauces and meat and fish stews, it is inexpensive, delicious, and satisfying - warming everyones tummy, restoring the energy in any household the moment it arrives on the table.

It is generally available in supermarkets, Italian delicatessens and general stores. (Leaf Store in Elwood https://theleafstore.com.au/ normally stock it and they offer home delivery as do Enoteca Sileno in Carlton - https://enoteca.com.au/ I saw 1kg vacuum sealed bags of white polenta today in Meat Smith https://meatsmith.com.au/ who now have home delivery.  The premium white polenta is sold here for $19/kg - which though pricey would amount to up to 30 serves.  The instant yellow polenta can be found for less than  $8 / kg in supermarkets.  I have seen it at the Mediterranean Wholesalers in Sydney Road for about $3 / kg.

Savoury polenta can replace rice, potatoes or pasta in most cases.  It can be served firm or soft and creamy, grilled, baked or fried.  It is excellent topped with fresh tomato sauce, fresh mushrooms cooked in butter and olive oil, Osso Bucco, Bolognese meat Ragu, or a beef or rabbit stew - the possibilities are endless and positively delicious.  

There is both yellow and white polenta, depending on whether one uses meal from yellow or white corn.  The corn meal itself may be either fine - grained or coarse.  Yellow polenta is more common but if you see the white polenta it is particularly delicate and creamy and light in texture and ideal with fish stews with tomato sauce or rabbit stew.  The yellow polenta is robustly satisfying in texture and ideal with strongly flavoured meat or mushroom stews with lots of sauce.  Both white and yellow polenta are a great choice with vegetarians and delicious with braised vegetables or melted cheese - classically Gorgonzola if you can get it.

Polenta can be found in instant (Polenta Pronta) and regular packs.  The instant is very acceptable but not really that instant because I recommend that you cook it for about 20 minutes longer than the 3 - 5 minutes suggested in the packet directions. 

Polenta is classically made just with salted water.  I love to add cream or butter and grated cheese - preferably Parmesan to it before serving with a meat braise - and I always prefer a creamier, softer texture - you achieve this by adding more water during the cooking time. No matter how soft the polenta when it is hot though - it always firms up when cool.  For this reason I recommend that you store any left over polenta in a shallow square or rectangle dish.  You can then reheat it in the oven and cut into slabs to serve or cut it into pieces and fry it in hot olive oil - like thick chips or to whatever size you prefer.  Gorgeous hot with grated cheese and salt and pepper and little else.  

The notes that follow on cooking Polenta have been adapted from Marcella Hazan’s The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

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The variations on serving polenta are so vast - so long as you can get polenta you will not go hungry I assure you.  

NB WARNING TO COOKS.

Polenta can spit furiously from the pot and burn you badly!!  Keep a lid or spatter protector handy to protect yourself.