Whip up a batch of steaming hearty polenta to cap off a perfect snowy winter evening!
We love this dish whether we’re at Acorns Cottage up in the mountain or at our city home. With some simple ingredients and about a half hour of your time, you’ll be ready to serve this dish as a substitute for potatoes and rice with any meal. Learn how to make polenta or adapt this recipe for your own enjoyment!
What exactly is polenta?
What exactly is it, you ask? I asked that same thing. When Luca and I were first dating, he took me to a small town at the foot of the Italian Alps where his parents came from. There, I met his whole happy extended family.
They welcomed me into their homes and hearts from the start. Making sure to fully immerse me in the Lombardy mountain experience, Zia Maddalena (Luca’s aunt) prepared the decadent dish of polenta infused with cheese. She served it with grilled sausage and a variety of other meats. In Northern Italy they call the polenta and sausage dish, Polenta e Strinu’. I was hooked.
When I think of typical mountain food, quite naturally polenta comes to top of mind. More specifically, I always associate it to Italian mountain cooking. When we moved back to the United States after starting our family in Italy, I was delighted to find that a local Italian specialty store near us sold this cornmeal. Then I realized it was more common than I thought.
Although the very first version I tasted was infused with cheese, more commonly, Northern Italian families serve the basic kind. And that’s the kind I share with you below.
What does it taste like?
Some identify polenta as the Italian version of southern grits since both are made from ground cornmeal. However, it differs in the type of corn used–dried yellow corn kernels, to be exact. Those kernels give it its yellow color. In addition, it is more course, not as creamy velvety as grits.
Where to buy it?
If you’ve never tasted polenta, you may want to try it at an Italian restaurant if you’re so inclined. Some people find it challenging to cook a dish they’ve never tasted. However, if you’re the adventurous type, just go for it! You can find it at specialty stores if you want to be fancy. But you can also find it on the shelves of your local grocery store and Amazon.
Polenta Recipe
Once considered a “poor man’s dish” in Northern Italy, it has the basic ingredients of yellow cornmeal coarsely ground, water, butter, and salt. That’s why it’s a staple in our pantries at our cottage as well as at home.
Back home in Southern California, we’ve adapted Zia Maddalena’s recipe and use the cornmeal available to us. We realize we cannot exactly replicate all the dishes we know and love from Italy. But we can try and still enjoy an adaptation to them.
We use Golden Pheasant Polenta and follow the Basic Polenta Recipe on the back of the bag exactly.
It’s an easy 4:1:1:2 ratio.
4 cups of water
1 cup of Golden Pheasant Polenta
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. butter
The ingredients are simple enough, now find a family member willing to stir the polenta for about 30 minutes straight! The recipe calls for intermittent stirring but we’ve found consistent and constant stirring prevents the polenta from sticking and ultimately burning at the bottom of the pot.
We relegate the stirring task to one of our kids. They oblige, of course, knowing their reward once it’s done!
First, boil the water. Once boiling, salt the water. Now you’re ready to add the polenta. But don’t just dump it in.
Gradually pour in the cornmeal stirring all the while. The more you stir, the thicker the consistency will get. But it takes a while so be patient. Be sure to lower the flame to medium to prevent burning.
After about a half hour of stirring, add the butter and serve hot!
What do you eat with polenta?
Zia Maddalena served hers with a variety of scrumptious meat dishes and stews. In Luca’s family, they would eat the polenta with a meat dish. Then they would bring out their cheese platter and serve up the rest of the polenta with the cheese.
In the pictures above, one of our sons was preparing the meat dish while the other stirred the polenta. Thanks to them, we ate well that night!
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