What is Polenta? What sort of dishes can you make with it?

Answer 1

Polenta is dried, ground corn that you cook with water until it has the consistency of oatmeal. By itself, its pretty bland.

Its primarily used instead of pasta or rice as a side dish. For example, you could make bolognese sauce (tomato sauce with meat) and serve it with polenta instead of pasta. It would also work well with a fish stew...or even beef stew.

One other use of polenta is to put the cooked mush in a buttered loaf pan and refrigerate it. Then when its cool you can remove it from the pan and cut it into slices. These slices can be sauteed in a little butter or olive oil and again used as a base for a dish. Stack roasted vegetables (eggplant, zuchini, roasted red peppers, onions) on top of the polenta slice with a bit fresh tomato, basil and lettuce. drizzle with olive oil and vinegar, salt & pepper.....and you have an excellent salad.

This is a very very short list, and I am sure others can give you more elaborate uses

But these are some of the basics.

Good luck.

Answer 2

BEEF IN RED WINE WITH POLENTA

1/3 c. butter
2 lbs. lean tender beef
1 lb. onions, sliced
Salt and pepper
1 c. condensed beef broth
Dry red wine

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat butter in a saucepan and brown the meat in it. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and put aside.

Cook the onions in the pan until soft but not brown (they will become translucent). Add wine or water, if needed. Put the cooked onions in the bottom of a casserole dish and put the meat on top. Season with salt and pepper, then add the beef broth. Add just enough dry red table wine to cover the mixture.

Cook until the fluid is significantly reduce and until the meat is cooked and tender, 45 minutes to an 1 hour. Serve the beef with onions and red wine over polenta on heated plates. Serves 4.

POLENTA:

1.5 c. polenta corn meal
6.25 c. water
Salt

Polenta is best cooked in a pan with a convex bottom. Copper or enamel works the best. Boil the salted water and add the coarse corn meal slowly, about 1/3 cup (a handful) at a time. Decrease the heat and stir constantly while scraping the bottom and sides. Cooking time will be about 30 to 45 minutes and your arms will become tired before you are finished.

Once the polenta comes away easily from the sides of the pan and the spoon stands up in the polenta, it is finished. Loosen it from the pan with a spoon and serve it very hot. If the polenta is too thin or if you are going to serve it a little later, place it in a casserole dish. Add several tablespoons of butter to the top and bake in the oven until serving time. Serve with chicken or pheasant sauce or with beef and wine sauce.

Answer 3

Basically, polenta is a very find grain, mostly called grits and the best kind to buy to do various dishes would be the yellow box by quaker oaks. You bring water to a boil with a little salt, then add the amount per servings, let it set and kool, cut in squares and bake, or fry yummie's all day.

Answer 4

Well, you've got lots of good explanations of what polenta is and how to make it (just make sure when you make it, you pour it in slowly and keep stirring), so I'm not going to repeat that. My grandmother made polenta all the time. She would layer polenta, spaghetti sauce, and pepperoni (like a lasagna) and bake it. It was awesome!

Answer 5

Polenta is corsely ground cornmeal. It is cooked with water, or my favorite milk or even cream. I like to add parmesean cheese or asiago cheese that I grate myself. Of course, you can buy it premade, it's much easier, but it doesn't have the flavor. It takes a LONG time to cook, stirring constantly over the stove on a low flame (45 minutes or so. ) then you let it cool in a pan. it gets very firm. I've had it a couple of ways after it's made, or bought
:-) In a new york restaurant it was served with a grilled portabella mushroom and goats milk (chevre) cheese (with chives I think). I also had it at a local vegetarian restaurant, it had cream and the cheese in it. then a sauce made from fresh tomatoes and fennell. that was REALLY good. yum! you can google "recipe polenta" for exact cooking directions. IN fact, any time you want to cook anything and want a recipe, just list what you have on hand for food, then 'recipe' and google it, for bunches of recipies using your ingredients. of course, yahoo search the web works great too! good luck!

Answer 6

Polenta is a cornmeal dish popular in Italian, Savoy, Swiss, Austrian, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Corsican, Argentinean, Brazilian, and Mexican cuisine, and it is a traditional staple food throughout much of northern Italy.
For recipes, of the kind of dishes that can be made with Polenta, please visit :
http://italianfood.about.com/od/polentarecipes/
and
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/polenta

Answer 7

Polenta
3 cups water
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup cold water
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons minced garlic

Garlic Polenta With Sausage

1 lb mild Italian sausage, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/4 lb pancetta or bacon, cut up
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper
1 bay leaf

In large skillet cook sausage, pancetta or bacon, onion, garlic, green pepper and carrot for about 15 minutes or until meat is browned and vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.
Drain off fat.
Stir in undrained tomatoes, wine, water, bay leaf and salt and pepper.
Simmer gently, uncovered, for 35-40 minutes or until desired consistency, stirring occasionally.
Discard bay leaf.
Serve sauce over garlic polenta.
For polenta: In a 2 quart saucepan, bring 3 cups water to a rolling boil.
Meanwhile, combine cornmeal, cold water, salt and garlic.
Slowly pour cornmeal mixture into boiling water, stirring constantly.
Return just to boiling, reduce heat to low.
Cook, covered (bubbles will pop, so be careful), stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes or until thick.
Serve with above sauce.

Answer 8

hallo!I'm Italian girl. I live in vicenza,it is near Venice.I love "polenta"!it's a tipical food in my city.It's like a cream,but not sweet,it's yallow and you can eat it whit meet and tomato,or whit chees.but we prefer eat it(not me,of course)whit little bird!

Answer 9

It's basically what most have said - ground corn. You can fry it in olive oil. I think it's part of the vegan diet.

Answer 10

Blood pudding...