Polenta soft Italian cuisine recipes. Polenta: what is it, how to cook a traditional Italian dish

The national Italian dish is corn polenta! Very tasty and satisfying - with cheese, raisins, vegetables.

Polenta, a dish made from crushed corn kernels, first appeared in Italy in the 16th century. After this golden cereal was brought from America to Europe by Columbus. Initially, this dish was cooked only by the poor. However, over time, it became widespread and won the love of Italian gourmets, turning from an ordinary peasant food into a gourmet dish. Polenta is a versatile food. The thing is that the Italians use it not only as a side dish for meat and fish dishes, but also as a dessert, snack, and even instead of bread. It all depends on the recipe. And there are an incredible number of them. You can cook polenta soft and sweet, you can harden it and serve it cut into pieces. In addition, it can be supplemented with vegetables, cheese, mushrooms, meat or seafood and get a completely independent and very satisfying dish. For children, it is best to offer polenta with sweet fruits. In general, any gourmet will find a recipe to your taste. If you master the classic polenta recipe, then all its other variations will not seem difficult for you.

1 cup polenta (very fine cornmeal)
3 glasses of water.
Salt to taste.
Butter.

To prepare this dish, very small corn grits are used - almost flour. It's called "polenta". And to be more precise, it’s not even cereal, but coarse corn flour. By the way, the taste of the dish depends very much on its quality. You can never make real polenta from cheap low-grade flour - smooth and velvety, with a delicate, creamy taste. But that's not all. Before making cornmeal polenta, you will need to find a deep copper pot or a thick-walled pot. In the old days, every Italian family had a special cauldron for this purpose, which hung over the hearth and a long wooden spoon to it. It was in it that Italian housewives cooked their traditional dish. But, given that it is rather problematic to get such a boiler in our time, you can also use an ordinary Teflon heat-resistant saucepan. So, you will need to measure exactly 3 cups of water. That is, the ratio of water to cereal should be exactly 3 to 1. No more, no less. When the water boils, salt it to taste, reduce the heat to a minimum so that the water barely gurgles and pour the flour in a very thin stream, stirring constantly.

Now be patient, because in the next 30-40 minutes your task will be to continuously stir the corn porridge. Patiently, carefully and not in a hurry. When the porridge begins to slightly lag behind the walls of the pan, and this will happen no earlier than in half an hour, the fire can be turned off.

Spoon the finished porridge onto a shallow baking sheet or into another suitable container about a centimeter thick.

Smooth it out with a spoon. Lay the parchment on top and again gently smooth the whole mass with your hands. Let it cool down for about half an hour. Then remove the parchment.

Cut the frozen mass into pieces. You can also squeeze circles with a glass - as you like.

Heat a frying pan with butter and fry the polenta pieces in it.

Transfer them to a plate and sprinkle with pepper if desired. You can eat both cold and hot.

Recipe 2: Corn Polenta (Step by Step)

Polenta, in fact, corn porridge with various additives, is an Italian dish. Variations on the polenta theme exist in different parts of Italy. Since the taste of corn grits is rather neutral, and the color is not very expressive, in order to prepare an appetizing polenta, something spicy and bright is added to the corn porridge, such as hot and sweet peppers of different colors, garlic, and various herbs.

water - 800 ml
corn grits - 150 g
soft cheese - 100 g
hard parmesan cheese - 30 g
hot chili pepper - 1 pc.
garlic - 2 cloves
olive oil - 2 tbsp. l.

Prepare all the ingredients for the polenta. Mince the garlic. The garlic cloves should be approximately 2mm on a side. Finely chop the pepper (1 or ½) into 5mm squares. If you are not a fan of spicy food, first remove the seeds from the pepper, or you can limit yourself to just half a hot pepper. Grate both cheeses (soft and hard) on a fine grater.

Saute garlic and hot peppers in olive oil.

One minute will be enough, the main thing is that the garlic and pepper retain their juiciness, and do not dry out and do not overcook. Strain garlic and pepper through a strainer, drain excess oil.

Boil water (800 ml) in a saucepan, salt it and pour in corn grits (150 g) in a thin stream, stirring constantly. If you pour all the cereal at once, it will instantly brew, and you will get a shapeless piece of porridge instead of polenta. Remember, semolina porridge is cooked according to the same principle. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring the corn grits continuously for five minutes. Its readiness can be defined as follows. If, when stirring, a trace of a spoon remains at the bottom of the pan with corn grits, then the porridge can be removed from the heat.

Add fried peppers with garlic to the finished corn porridge.

Add soft cheese and Parmesan.

Stir.

Form (preferably square) line with baking paper, pour the corn mixture.

Level the surface.

Place the polenta in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool the finished polenta completely, only then cut into sticks 2 cm wide and 6 cm long.

Serve Italian polenta with any sauce. It goes well even with ketchup, and real fire-eaters will love polenta with Tabasco spicy sauce.

Recipe 3, simple: cornmeal polenta

Finely ground cornmeal - 100 grams
Water - 300 grams
Salt - 20 grams

The ingredients for polenta are very modest, you can’t even believe that you can cook a gourmet dish from this set.

It is ideal to cook classic polenta in a copper bowl, stirring with a wooden spoon, but copper dishes are rare in our modern apartments, so you can replace it with a pot with thick walls and a bottom or a cauldron. Pour the required amount of water into a thick-walled saucepan, add salt and bring the water to a boil.

The main secret of the perfect polenta is the correct proportion of products, one part flour and three parts water. We introduce flour into boiling water in small parts and mix well with a spoon so that lumps do not form, the porridge should be of a homogeneous consistency.

With constant stirring, we cook porridge from corn for about 50 minutes, this long and laborious process cannot be interrupted, this is how the porridge will turn out to be the right consistency and not burn. As soon as the porridge begins to lag behind the walls and it has a crust, it is ready, proceed to the next stage of cooking.

Line a baking dish with parchment paper.

Put the cooked corn porridge in the form, cool, then put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

After the allotted time, we take out the finished polenta from the refrigerator, remove the parchment paper, put it on a cutting board.

Carefully divide the polenta into portioned pieces according to your taste, cut off the bumps and edges.

Put the sliced pieces in a baking dish, pre-grease the bottom of the form with sunflower oil. Put in an oven preheated to 120 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Let the polenta cool down, now our dish is ready, you can put it on serving plates, because in the homeland of polenta they use it even instead of bread, or cook delicious dishes from polenta.

Polenta can be served with vegetables. You can also serve polenta with meat dishes; in Venice, you will definitely be served it with fish dishes.

For breakfast, polenta can be prepared in the form of tartlets with cucumber and boiled egg, you can’t imagine a better breakfast.

Polenta is delicious in combination with any ingredients, it is very versatile, cooled and dried polenta, for example, can be cut into pieces, sprinkled with grated parmesan and baked in the oven. Grilled polenta or sweet polenta is also delicious, it is customary to eat it by dipping it in coffee with milk.

Recipe 4: Italian Polenta

Corn porridge polenta is one of the most ancient and favorite dishes of Italians. In the north of Italy, it is customary to cook it with the addition of the remains of different types of cheese, as well as with various meat fillings.

Our step-by-step recipe with photos will show you how to make cornmeal polenta at home. This porridge also turns out well from cereals, but flour polenta is more tender. The resulting dish is very difficult to compare with ordinary porridge. The cheese in its composition gives the Italian polenta a unique taste that cannot be forgotten.

Our photo recipe will help you easily prepare corn polenta to please your loved ones with an old Italian dish.

cornmeal - 380 gr
water - 1 l
milk - 250 ml
butter - 160 gr
hard cheese - 250 gr
garlic - 1 clove
white bread - 1 slice
sage - 4 leaves
thyme - 1 sprig
edible salt - to taste

We prepare water: mix it with milk and bring to a boil, salt and throw bread.

Slowly and carefully fold in the cornmeal. Reduce heat and cook for 10-15 minutes. The main thing is not to forget constantly, stir so that lumps do not form.

Now let's get to the cheeses: they need to be grated or crumbled ( it depends on the type of cheeses you choose for the dish).

After the polenta has boiled, add the cheeses to it, stirring constantly until they are completely dissolved.

We heat the pan, melt the butter in it, add the garlic, which must be crushed well beforehand, and sage leaves.

After a few minutes, take out the garlic and sage, and pour the resulting mixture into porridge. Mix well, decorate with a sprig of thyme - and corn polenta according to an old Italian recipe is ready. It can be used as an independent dish with some kind of sauce or as a side dish for meat.

Recipe 5: Polenta Porridge with Bell Peppers

Polenta is the national dish of Italians, an analogue of hominy in Moldovan cuisine.

Vegetable oil
Flour 2 tbsp
Butter 30 g.
Onion 100 g
Salt 0.5 tsp
Herbs 0.5 tsp
Tomatoes 100 g
Water 700 ml.
Sour cream 2 tbsp
Bulgarian pepper 100 g.
Corn grits 250 g

To prepare polenta, you will need finely ground corn grits or flour, salt and aromatic herbs (they are optional, you can add them at your discretion), onions, vegetable oil, wheat flour, butter, tomatoes, sweet peppers and sour cream.

Mix the cereal with dried herbs. If you don't want to use them, you can skip this step.

Bring the water to a boil. Pour cereal into it. You need to pour in a thin stream, constantly stirring the water. Throwing out all the cereal at once is wrong. She will fall into clumps. They can be broken, but for this you have to stir the porridge intensively. It’s easier to pour the cereal in portions.

Soon the porridge will begin to thicken. At this stage, add salt, butter to it and mix.

Continue cooking until the porridge thickens. Stir occasionally to evenly distribute heat and liquid. If the porridge has thickened, but the grains are still not soft enough, add a little water and continue cooking. The finished polenta should be so thick that a spoon stuck in it does not fall off.

Grease a deep plate or other suitable dish with vegetable oil. Put polenta in it. Smooth the surface with a spoon dipped in cold water. Leave the porridge to cool for 1-2 hours. During this time, the polenta will become dense and suitable for cutting.

Turn the chilled polenta over and place on a wooden board. When cooling, the porridge will decrease slightly in volume and it will be easy to get it. Cut the polenta with strong string or a wet knife. Do not use a regular knife. Boiled corn will stick to it, and you will only spoil even beautiful pieces. Do not cut hot polenta. It will fall apart into separate pieces.

Bread the polenta slices in flour and place in a pan with hot vegetable oil. You don't need a lot of flour. It is enough that it covers the pieces with a thin layer on both sides. Fry 2-3 minutes on each side, until browned. Do not turn the pieces until a golden crust appears at the bottom. It not only improves the taste and appearance of the dish, but also makes the pieces stronger and prevents them from falling apart. In general, polenta is completely ready-to-eat and unroasted. But I decided to cook just such a version of the dish. In Italy, by the way, it is called polenta fritta.

Prepare vegetable sauce for fried polenta. Cut all vegetables into small cubes.

Fry the onion with sweet pepper in vegetable oil until softened. Add tomatoes to them and fry until they soften too.

Add sour cream, salt, pepper and simmer for another 5 minutes under the lid. Drizzle this sauce over polenta when serving. If you want, you can grind the sauce in a blender and then bring it to a boil, then it will have a more uniform structure. Let the hot polenta with the sauce rest in a bowl for a few minutes before serving, so that the flavor of the sauce is well absorbed by the porridge.

Recipe 6: Polenta with Cheese (Step by Step Photos)

Polenta is a corn flour dish that can be served as a side dish. By adding cheese to polenta, you will get an independent dish and surprise all your loved ones with a new dish.

Milk - 250 ml
Corn flour - 70 g
Butter - 25 g
Cheese or cheese - 200 g
Salt - to taste
Ground black pepper - to taste
Fresh parsley - 2 g

How to cook polenta with cheese: Pour milk into a double-bottomed saucepan or cauldron and put on fire.

After boiling, add butter and, if desired, salt.

Dry the corn flour in the oven and sift (it is best to take finely ground flour). Whisking constantly, gradually add the cornmeal (the quality of your polenta depends on the quality of the flour). Thoroughly mix the porridge for 5 minutes over low heat.

Add another 40-50 g of milk and stir for another 4 minutes.

The polenta should be thick.

After the porridge has become a homogeneous consistency, put it in a mold or glass, previously greased with butter. It is good to tamp the porridge with a spoon, after wetting it with water.

Place the polenta in the refrigerator for 20-25 minutes until completely cool.

After getting out of the form.

Cut the polenta with a slightly damp knife.

Put on a plate, sprinkle with black pepper and chopped herbs.

Put sheep cheese or cheese on top and put the polenta with cheese in the oven (temperature - 180 degrees) for 7-10 minutes.

Cheese polenta is ready!

Recipe 7, step by step: polenta with mushrooms

An Italian dish called polenta is becoming more and more popular in our area. Along with pasta and pizza, it is prepared at Italian-style parties and served in themed restaurants. Making polenta at home is very easy if you know how to cook ... semolina. Yes, yes, it is this dish that most of all resembles an Italian delicacy in terms of consistency and method of preparation. Well, adding greens and mushrooms to it, you will get an excellent festive dish, which may well become the "star" of the entire table.

Polenta - 250 g
Champignons - 300 g
Onion - 1 pc.
Hard cheese - 200 g
Green garlic - 3-5 stalks
Parsnip leaves - half a bunch
Salt - to taste
Vegetable oil for frying

The technology for preparing this dish is designed in such a way that you first need to make a mushroom "additive", and after it - the polenta itself. So we clean the onion, cut it into half rings, rings or cubes (this is whoever loves it). We spread it on a frying pan heated and covered with vegetable oil, fry on all sides.

While the onions are fried, quickly clean the mushrooms, cut them into smaller pieces and put them in a pan. Please note that the fire must be rather big: otherwise the mushrooms will immediately release water and begin to “cook”. Salt mushrooms with onions, stir them from time to time.

Now let's cook polenta! To begin with, a small educational program: corn grits are often called polenta and it is recommended to cook it for 30-40 minutes. This is wrong: in fact, polenta is a very fine cornmeal that cooks almost instantly. Well, the classic corn porridge (mamaliga) from the corresponding cereals really should be cooked longer. In order to cook polenta, put a pot of water on the fire (there should be 3 times more water than polenta). If the water is already boiling, slowly pour the polenta into it, stirring all the time. At the same time, we make the fire very small. Then everything is the same as in the preparation of semolina porridge: constantly stir the porridge and make sure that there are no lumps. Don't forget to add some salt. After 3-5 minutes, polenta is ready.

Cut green garlic. Instead, you can add green onions to the polenta.

Now you need to prepare the cheese - grate it on a fine grater.

We process the baking dish with vegetable oil and put the polenta into it.

Lay a layer of mushrooms and onions on top of the polenta.

Well, the final layer is cheese. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and put our mold in it. Keep it there for up to 10 minutes, until the cheese is completely melted.

Polenta with mushrooms and herbs is ready! This porridge tastes like dumplings. Nevertheless, the dish is considered very noble and claims to be the gourmet's favorite delicacy.

Try to cook polenta with mushrooms - and see for yourself the excellent taste of this dish!

Recipe 8: Polenta with Tomatoes and Meat

a traditional set of products for Italian cuisine - fresh vegetables and meat, and instead of bread it is proposed to cook polenta. Polenta is a cool porridge made from finely ground corn grits, which completely replaces bread and can be served with any dish - fried fish, chicken, meat, stewed vegetables. Polenta is baked and fried in oil, boiled in milk or water, vegetable broth, made dense, almost like bread or more tender, resembling thick porridge. In any form and in any combination, polenta is very tasty and healthy, and even if you get carried away and allow yourself a large portion of polenta, there will be no harm to the figure.

An appetizer of polenta with tomatoes and meat can be served in portions, making turrets, or on a plate, supplemented with meat, vegetables and soft cheese.

finely ground corn grits - 1 cup;
water - 1 glass;
milk - 2 cups;
lean meat (veal, beef, pork) - 300 gr;
lard with layers of meat - 200 gr;
salt - to taste;
mozzarella or any soft cheese - 150 gr;
fresh tomatoes (large) - 4-5 pcs;
any fresh herbs - for serving.

Cut the fat into small cubes or sticks. We make the cuts not large, but not very small, taking into account the fact that the fat will need to be melted to cracklings.

We cut the meat a little larger than the fat. It is advisable to slightly freeze the meat for polenta from corn grits and then cut into neat cubes with sides of 2-2.5 cm.

We measure the right amount of finely ground corn grits. In appearance, it differs markedly from cornmeal, the structure of the cereal is heterogeneous, the grains are clearly visible.

Heat a dry frying pan well. Throw in the pieces of fat. We melt the fat, make cracklings, but do not fry them much. With a slotted spoon, we select the cracklings, while the pan with fat is set aside.

We cook polenta. Pour milk into boiling water (you need to cook polenta in a cauldron).

Heat up and bring the milk and water almost to a boil. Salt to taste.

Pour in 2-3 tbsp. spoons of rendered fat. Fat is needed so that the polenta with tomatoes and meat turns out to be tastier and more tender in taste.

Let the milk boil. Pour all the grits in a slide until you stir.

The milk continues to boil quietly, the cereal gradually swells. When the milk rises and almost covers the cereal, we take a pusher and begin to mix the cereal with milk, as if kneading it.

Gradually, the cereal will absorb milk, the mass will become viscous and lumpy. It is necessary to knead the cereal well so that there are no dry areas left.

Cover the casserole with polenta. We make a small fire, steam the grits for 20-25 minutes. It should become soft and tender, absorb all the liquid. Near the walls, the cereal will be baked, slightly fried. We turn the cauldron with ready-made polenta onto a plate so that the polenta is on the plate in a slide. Cover it with a towel and let it rest for 5-10 minutes.

We put a frying pan with rendered fat on a strong fire. Fry the meat quickly until golden brown. Salt the meat to taste. Mix the fried meat with cracklings and warm everything up.

We transfer the polenta to a cutting board and knead with a layer of 3 cm. Cut out circles with a glass. Cut the tomatoes into thick slices. Put a circle of tomato on a circle of polenta.

Put crumbled mozzarella or any soft cheese, fried meat with cracklings on top of the tomato. Decorate with herbs and serve a snack to the table. Bon appetit!

Recipe 9: Sweet Polenta with Raisins and Dried Apricots

1.5 st. water (or milk)
150 g corn grits
2 tbsp Sahara
a pinch of salt
a handful of raisins
a handful of dried apricots
butter (or vegetable) oil for greasing the mold
maple syrup or honey for serving

Bring milk to a boil, add cereals, sugar, salt, cook over low heat under the lid for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the porridge is being cooked, rinse the raisins with hot water, pour the dried apricots with boiling water for 10 minutes, then cut into pieces equal in size to the raisins.

Grease a rectangular shape with butter.

When the porridge is ready, add raisins and dried apricots to it, mix, put in a mold, level with a spatula.

Allow the polenta to cool, then cut into slices and drizzle with maple syrup or honey when serving. Polenta can be stored in the refrigerator for several days.

Recipe 10: Polenta Casserole with Vegetables

I suggest you cook a puff casserole of polenta with vegetables. This lean vegan dish is very easy to prepare. Vegetables can be taken according to the season and to your taste. I really like polenta with vegetables, see the classic recipe with photos step by step below.

1 cup corn flour
about 2 liters of water
1 carrot
half onion,
half sweet pepper
a few cauliflower florets
2 zucchini
piece of eggplant
4 tbsp tomatoes in juice or diluted tomato paste,
1 tbsp olive oil,
salt and pepper to taste,
1 tsp paprika.

There are two types of cornmeal for polenta: classic and instant. Boil the polenta until tender, as directed on the package. The flour is poured into boiling salted water and boiled, stirring, until thickened.

While the polenta is cooking, let's start with the vegetables. Cut the onion and carrot into small cubes.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onions and carrots in it.

When the onion becomes translucent, add finely chopped cauliflower and diced sweet pepper. Cover the vegetables with a lid.

At this stage, add tomatoes to the vegetables in juice or tomato paste so that the vegetables are stewed in it and do not burn. Simmer vegetables for five minutes.

For now, cut the zucchini and eggplant into small cubes.

After five minutes, put the zucchini and eggplant in the pan, season the vegetables with salt, pepper and sweet paprika. Stir, simmer the vegetables under the lid for another 5 minutes, that is, until half cooked.

Pour the finished polenta (half) into a rectangular mold lined with baking paper. The polenta should be hot, fresh off the fire. So it is still liquid and it is convenient to work with it.

Quickly spread the vegetable filling on the polenta and smooth with a spoon.

Pour the other half of the hot polenta over the vegetables, completely covering the filling. Level the surface if necessary. You can drizzle a puff pastry of vegetables with olive oil.

We send the polenta to the oven to bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees. During this time, the vegetables will become soft and the polenta more dense. The surface of the casserole will brown slightly. You will definitely like this polenta with vegetables, the classic recipe with a step-by-step photo is very simple, so everyone can cook this delicious casserole.

Let the polenta cool slightly before cutting it into portions. Serve warm.

How to cook polenta? How to submit it? How to make a rich snack out of "poor" porridge? All these culinary questions will be considered in this article.
Recipe content:

Among the numerous Italian culinary treasures, many dishes are in the public domain: pizza, risotto, pasta, polenta. This is the most sonorous "roll call" of Italian dishes. In this famous list, polenta occupies a special place, which has turned from porridge for the poor into a gourmet dish. In gourmet restaurants, the dish is valued at a considerable amount. However, this dish is both democratic and rich at the same time.

Cooking polenta: subtleties and secrets

Polenta is a dish made from cornmeal. It is a thick porridge, a side dish or an independent dish. It is served on its own or with additives: meat, anchovies, fish, seafood, etc. The quality of polenta depends on the quality of the flour. The dish should be creamy and smooth. when cooked, the starch dissolves completely. Cheap low-grade flour will not give a similar result, and larger particles will not completely dissolve.

For soft polenta, use 3 parts water to 1 part cornmeal.
Cook the dish over low heat for 40-50 minutes, stirring constantly.
The "historical" technology involves the use of copper utensils for cooking polenta.
The readiness of porridge is determined when the mass lags behind the walls of the pan. Then it's time to remove it from the stove.
Cornmeal can be white or yellow. But more often yellow is used.
It is desirable to give preference to coarse flour, then the dish will be more healthy. From fine grinding, porridge will come out more tender with a creamy texture.
To serve, pour the polenta into a bowl dipped in cold water. Leave to stand for 10 minutes, then spread on a plate.
The remaining polenta is kept in the refrigerator under plastic wrap for up to 3 days.
If the porridge is needed thick, for frying, then it is laid out on a greased baking sheet 1.2 cm thick and left until thickened or baked at 175 ° C until it warms up.
Cut thick polenta into squares with a pizza cutter or an ordinary kitchen knife.
Before cutting, it is kept for some time in hot water.
To avoid lumps, the flour is slowly poured into boiling water, stirring constantly. Another easy way to avoid lumps is to pour the cornmeal into cold water, beat quickly, and then bring to a boil.
If the bottom of the polenta is burnt, then it is transferred to another pan, without scraping off the burnt bottom, and continue cooking. At the same time, it is often stirred.
Remove the lumpy polenta from the stove, knead the lumps, beat vigorously with a mixer.
Soft warm polenta can replace bread during meals.

Polenta can be prepared in a variety of ways. But the simplest is on water with the addition of salt. For a tastier and healthier porridge, use yellow or white flour, and a thick consistency - coarse grinding.

Calorie content per 100 g - 87 kcal.
Servings - 4
Cooking time - 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Water - 3 l
Corn grits - 1 tbsp.
Salt - to taste

Step by step preparation:

Boil salted water in a saucepan.
Gradually pour in the corn grits, while constantly stirring the mass.
After boiling again, when bubbles form, reduce the heat.
Continue to cook the cereal for 30 minutes, stirring constantly. If necessary, add water or sprinkle porridge.
When the mass lags behind the walls of the pan, then the dish is ready.
Transfer the mass to a tray, give the desired shape and leave to cool.

The original and classic polenta recipe is very simple. The main thing is to follow the technology and the sequence of the recipe.

Ingredients:

Yellow cornmeal - 0.5 tbsp.
Drinking water - 1.5 tbsp.
Salt - to taste

Step by step preparation:

Boil water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan so that the porridge does not burn.
Gradually add the cornmeal, stirring it with a wooden spoon.
Salt and stir.
Bring the mixture back to a boil, stirring constantly.
Reduce the heat to the minimum and cook the food for 30 minutes, remembering to stir.
When the porridge begins to lag behind the walls, freely separate from the bottom and form a crust on the walls of the pan, it means that it is ready. The consistency of the polenta should be smooth and creamy.
Lay the Italian delicacy on a cutting board, shape into a rectangular shape and refrigerate.

Polenta(Italian: Polenta) - an Italian dish, which is corn porridge. Despite the sonorous name, the dish is quite simple. In fact, this is the most common steep porridge made from crushed corn grains or corn flour, an analogue of the well-known hominy (Moldovan, Romanian, Caucasian, Western Ukrainian and Cossack national dish).

Polenta is especially popular in northern Italy, in the Italian part of Switzerland, as well as in!

Historical reference

Only in the XVI century. corn came to Europe, where it was brought by ships from America.

She very quickly took root on European soil and easily gained popularity, becoming an ingredient in many dishes. The prototype of corn polenta is considered to be the ancient Roman porridge “pulse” (Italian Рuls or Рulmentum). A culinary masterpiece of Italian cuisine, polenta was originally a simple meal of the Italian peasants and the poor. Traditionally, the food was cooked in a large copper cauldron, mixing corn grits with water and stirring the mass over low heat until it thickens. Then the composition was cooled on a wooden tray, the frozen polenta was cut into strips and dried a little. In this form, it was stored and eaten for several days, pieces of polenta were usually taken with them on the road.

Simple polenta was flavored only with salt and fragrant herbs; instead of cheese, the poor added dry bread crumbs. More prosperous peasants fried strips of polenta in oil, stewed, baked, poured with various sauces.

So simple peasant corn porridge was the ancestor of many dishes that have become a masterpiece of Italian cuisine.

Over time, with the invention of various recipes based on polenta, it began to be served in expensive restaurants, satisfying the needs of the most demanding gourmets.

Today there are a huge number of options for its preparation, for every taste.

It is used as a side dish and as an independent dish with various additives (with meat, cheese, mushrooms, vegetables, anchovies, fruits), fried, baked, etc. There is hard polenta (you can buy this in stores) and soft. It can also be sweet and served for dessert.

A few words about the benefits and harms

The main component is corn grits (flour), which includes potassium, calcium, sodium, iron, copper, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, zinc, biotin, fiber, proteins and carbohydrates necessary for the human body, as well as vitamins of groups A, B , E, PP and other weight. Calorie content: 100 calories per 100 g.

classic polenta

Some of the Benefits

Regular consumption of polenta helps to reduce bad cholesterol levels.
Corn is good for the cardiovascular system: thanks to vitamin C, the walls of blood vessels and the heart muscle are strengthened.
Including a dish of corn flour in your diet, you can normalize metabolism, it improves the functioning of all body systems and contributes to weight loss.
Fiber, which is part of polenta, normalizes digestion, actively cleanses the intestines, removing toxins and toxins.
Polenta is extremely beneficial for the skin, as corn contains vitamins A and E, which are necessary for nourishing and moisturizing the skin.
This dish can rightly be called dietary. Polenta is low-calorie, but gives a feeling of satiety for a long time, which contributes to the normalization of body weight (this is very important today).
The phosphorus contained in corn is very useful for the brain, improving its activity.
Zinc is known to have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects.
Iron, which is part of corn grits, is necessary for the prevention and treatment of anemia.
Corn grits are gluten-free, which means that the dish can be considered hypoallergenic, and people with food allergies can safely include polenta in their diet.

As for harm, the dish is contraindicated for those suffering from stomach ulcers and gastritis in the acute stage. And finally, when using polenta, observe the measure, otherwise, if you get carried away too much, you can provoke constipation.

How to cook at home

For the preparation of polenta, it is desirable to use yellow or white cornmeal. If you want the polenta to have a thicker consistency, opt for wholemeal flour.

Cooking method:

To prepare the dish, you need special dishes with a thick bottom, not aluminum and not enameled. A cauldron is great.
Pour 1 liter of water into the cauldron, add 1 glass of cereal and put on low heat.
Cook for 40 minutes to an hour, stirring constantly, until the polenta begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Porridge needs to be salted, pepper to taste, mix, cover with a lid and remove from heat. Then it is made either soft or hard. While it is hot, it is important to decide what dish you want to get in the end.
It remains to transfer the composition to a tray, give it the desired shape and cool.

How to apply?

Ready-made polenta can be baked, fried in oil in a pan, grilled, then served as a side dish with meat or fish. The dish goes well with vegetables and all kinds of sauces.

Sweet polenta is an amazing dessert for tea. It can be served with cream, jams, preserves, syrups, etc.

To make soft polenta, add some milk, herbs and a dollop of butter to a saucepan. Soft p. will be a wonderful side dish for any main course, instead of the usual ubiquitous potatoes.
To harden the polenta sufficiently, add grated hard cheese, butter and a little wine to the finished corn porridge. Mix the porridge quickly, put it on a greased baking sheet, level with a spatula and leave for 20-30 minutes. When the dish hardens, turn the baking sheet onto a wooden tray and, until it has completely hardened, cut into the desired pieces.
Pieces of polenta can be grilled, pan-fried, baked in the oven and served with various sauces.
Add different spices and seasonings, experiment with taste.
The consistency of porridge can be controlled by changing the proportions of water and flour.
Hard p. is cut with a regular sharp knife, pizza cutter or with a strong thread.
Various sauces are prepared for polenta (bechamel and tomato, cheese, sour cream, mushroom) or simply stewed vegetables. With polenta, everything will be extraordinarily tasty. Experiment and enjoy!

Curious facts

Very tasty breakfast

Its recipe was found in the original book of Russian authors "At the table with Nero Wolfe or the Secrets of the kitchen of the great detective." Nero Wolfe, as you know, is both a great detective and a great gourmet, to be honest, a big glutton, who is the main character of R. Stout's series of detectives. According to the plot, the famous detective had a personal chef, Fritz Brenner, the best culinary specialist in New York, who, in the course of the story, treats the gourmet hero with all sorts of delights. The authors of The Culinary Detective (S. Sinelnikov, T. Solomonik, I. Lazerson) in their book give recipes for many dishes mentioned in Stout's novels.

Corn porridge recipes

polenta recipe

25 minutes

90 kcal

5 /5 (1 )

Are you tired of standard cereals and want some variety? cook Italian polenta. This is a traditional dish of the north of Italy since the 16th century. And also it is common in the southern part of Switzerland. In addition, it is often prepared in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria. Kachamak, zhgantsy, hominy - these are all the names of polenta. It is served instead of bread or as a side dish. Sandwiches are made from it and figures are cut out for children. Despite its simple preparation, it is prepared by the best restaurant chefs. They make real culinary masterpieces from this simple dish.

Important points in the preparation of polenta

Pot to prepare polenta should be with thick or double bottom. Ideal for this cast-iron cauldron. In a thin-walled pot, the polenta is more likely to burn.
You can prepare it as on milk, and on the water. But of course with the addition of butter.
The smaller grinding corn grits, the more tender the polenta will be. It is better to use cornmeal or real instant polenta.
You need the right polenta stir all the time.
Polenta without parmesan- It's not polenta. So do not skimp on a small piece of this cheese. In extreme cases, it can be replaced with other hard cheeses.
Stir the polenta with a wooden or silicone spatula. You can also use for this silicone whisk.

Recipe for italian polenta with cheese

Kitchen tools: saucepan, frying pan, wooden spatula, grater, cutting board.

List of Ingredients

Step by step cooking

It is prepared in the same way. And I recommend cooking it for lovers of Caucasian cuisine.

How to serve polenta

Here are just a few ways to serve polenta. In fact, there are a lot of them. That is why she never gets bored.

The easiest way is to add more a piece of butter, stir and divide into bowls. In addition, you can put honey or jam on the table.
We need a small rectangular shape or a court. Lubricate the dish with butter. Pack the prepared polenta tightly into it and cool completely. When it cools down, put it in the fridge for 25 minutes. We pass a knife between the polenta and the form. Turn over and take out. Cut into slices of 1 cm. Put a cheese plate on each piece and send it to a hot oven or microwave for 5 minutes.
Grease a baking sheet with oil and spread the polenta. Smooth out and leave to dry. When it becomes firm, cut it into portioned squares. They can simply be fried in a pan with olive or vegetable oil and served with hot coffee or tea. Or you can form a sandwich and heat it in the microwave or oven.
From one square of polenta, which we cooled on a baking sheet, squeeze out the middle with a glass. Put it in a preheated pan with oil and pour the egg into the center. You can sprinkle cheese on top. Unusual and hearty scrambled eggs for breakfast ready.
For children, you can squeeze out various figures and water them condensed milk or melted chocolate.
Can cook polenta with vegetables. To do this, cut into strips any seasonal vegetables: eggplant, pepper, tomato, onion. We simmer them until cooked. We put the still hot polenta on a plate, push it apart and put the vegetables in the center.
Can you submit polenta pizza. To do this, we form a round cake on a greased baking sheet from still soft porridge and leave to harden. During this time, fry a couple of mushrooms, chop the ham or sausage, cut the cherry tomatoes in half. I'm putting it all on the board. It can be smeared with ketchup or sauce if desired. Sprinkle with grated cheese and bake for 5 minutes in a well-heated oven.
We mix cottage cheese with chopped herbs. Take some polenta in your hand. We make a recess, put the cottage cheese in it and form a ball. Such koloboks can be served immediately to the table or fried in a deep fryer.

And finally, I want to say that it is very convenient to cook polenta, like corn porridge, in a slow cooker. The Teflon coating of the bowl will definitely not let it burn, even if you are distracted from stirring.

Looking for a classic polenta recipe? Well, I think to myself: if you came here, it means that you are interested, and it is the classics, and not what is written on your package. So, my dears, I have to disappoint you. That's right from the start. Look at this photo. Do you have such a boiler? No? If not, then the classic polenta will not work for you, no matter what recipe you cook it with. Because classic polenta is made in a thick-walled copper cauldron over a wood fire. Basta! (By the way, "basta" is Italian.)

On a wood fire - this does not mean "at the stake." In Italy, until the end of the twentieth century, wood-burning stoves were very actively used in the villages. And not only in Italy, by the way. If you, say, have a wood-burning stove in your country house, then you have a chance to cook classic polenta. The only catch is a thick-walled copper boiler. Both wall thickness and material are very important. Copper is the most heat-conducting material of all used for cookware. It heats up very quickly and cools down just as quickly when you take the pan off the heat. Well, the thickness of the boiler allows you to use it in high heat, at those temperatures at which modern thin copper utensils with alloying simply deform and change color. In short, a pure copper old thick-walled boiler - THIS THING !!! But they are no longer produced. Ours is hereditary. But I don’t have a wood stove, so even I can’t show you the recipe for classic polenta, with the right boiler. I didn’t scare you away yet, will you continue to read?

Polenta is an old recipe, but not that of hoary antiquity. Corn came to Europe after the discovery of America, and in warm countries it seriously replaced other, more whimsical and less productive cereal crops. In Italy, accordingly, polenta replaced the pulse: a porridge made from ground spelled, millet, barley and spelt, known since ancient Rome. In short, the cereal has changed, but the cooking recipe has remained. So the technology for making polenta is a hell of a lot of years old, and in our refined conditions of the 21st century, it is very difficult to make it in its classic form.

I also tried the classic polenta - exactly once in my life, my father-in-law cooked when my parents came to get acquainted. The father-in-law's name was Giuseppe Manyago, he was from South Tyrol, whose inhabitants are called by the Italians from the plains: "polenta eaters." In short, I know the recipe, I can tell it, but I can’t cook it, because it’s simply impossible to install a domed copper boiler on a ceramic electric stove! I cook polenta in a flat-bottomed cast-iron cauldron adapted for electric stoves. Will suit you?

The main secret of the classic polenta, which distinguishes it from the product that has replaced it now, is the use of two types of cereals, with different grinding calibers. In Italy, you should take the coarsest and medium grinding, but, apart from the mills there, I have not seen this anywhere else, so in Germany I make it from corn grits and cornmeal. Using two gauges gives a very different consistency to the dish than with smooth flour. But cooking requires a bit more complex calculations than from one type of flour.

Ingredients for polenta are not counted in grams and milliliters, but in volumes. I counted in grams for this recipe, but this is not the traditional approach. It is necessary to explain how this was done normally. You can't imagine an Italian man at a wood-burning stove, measuring out flour and water with a scale and a measuring cup, can you?

The ratio of cereals for classic polenta, our Giuseppe used the following: for 1 measure of coarse grinding - 2 measures of fine grinding. And water - 4 times more than corn grits in the aggregate. That is, 12 cups of water, 2 cups of fine-grained cornmeal, and 1 cup of coarse-grained cornmeal. Cup, bowl, mug - it doesn't matter anymore, you know? Historically, there was a large cauldron, and there was some kind of small container with which water and cereals were measured.

The water is brought to a boil and salted.

First, a bowl of large-caliber cereals is poured into boiling salted water. Boil for approximately 5 minutes.

And after that, 2 cups of cornmeal are poured in a thin stream with very thorough stirring. When they hit the water, the polenta starts to spit wildly, you can seriously burn yourself. Much worse than just boiling water, because it is a sticky substance. Therefore, somewhere for a minute or two, it makes sense to close the cauldron with polenta with a lid.

When you hear that the spitting has stopped, the lid can be removed. Then there are two cooking strategies: on low heat with almost no stirring (it turns out a homogeneous polenta) and on high heat with stirring (it turns out dense, with a coarser and more heterogeneous structure). The first is easier to prepare and more beautiful, the second is more laborious, but, according to our family, it is tastier.

Today is just the birthday of the senior representative of our branch of the Manyago family, and the festive dinner was held with us, so I cooked exactly their favorite option: laborious and scary in appearance. In short, what you will see from me is not a cooking defect, but a special honor for the birthday man. Nobody forbids you to leave the lid closed, reduce the heat to low and simmer the polenta for about half an hour.

I have to stir the polenta from the edge to the center and in a circle for 20 minutes over high heat. Those. it turns out that I, in fact, whip it. Parallel stripes on the walls are traces of a scapula. From top to bottom and to the center, the next movement is a little to the right, and so on, all the time in a circle. A strong fire allows layers of a denser "skin" to form, which I constantly mix into the liquid inner layers. Stirring stops when the polenta is really moved away from the boiler wall in this way. It should form into a single dense lump. The fact that it is heterogeneous is considered by us to be just a special chic. I will cook a homogeneous liquid polenta in a saucepan.

After thickening, the surface of the polenta is compacted so that it becomes more or less even, and the polenta is kept on medium heat for another 5 minutes.

Once off the stove, let the polenta cool for 5-10 minutes. It makes sense to pierce its edges with a spatula to the very bottom so that they easily separate from the walls. Next, a round serving board is pressed against the polenta. By no means a plate! If you want classics, then you need an absolutely flat wooden surface, there are simply no such plates. I'll show you why a little further.

The pot of polenta is turned over and the polenta is planted on a wooden board. I can clearly see here that a crust has separated from the bottom of the boiler. So, it will have to be torn off and thrown away, because the boiler is cast iron and there is black frying on the crust, and the crust itself is very hard and slightly bitter. But you can even eat a crust from a copper boiler, it is different. But it is not served with the polenta that is on the board, it is torn off and used for breakfast with milk. Well, at least our Giuseppe did.

Should it be brought to a crisp? Classic polenta - yes, you definitely should. This gives it a special aroma - along with the smell of smoke from a wood-burning stove.

Now look carefully. This is a serving of classic polenta, that’s right, condo - there is no condo: on a wooden board and with a string. The rope should either be tied to two sticks, or have loops at its ends into which you can stick your fingers. A flat, wide spoon is also desirable - to shift the layers of polenta onto the eaters' plates.

The fact is that the classic polenta is cut not with a knife, but with a thread, and it is cut from the bottom up, and not from the top down. The thread is brought under the polenta from below to the thickness of the piece, stretched and pulled up at both ends. That's why you need a board, not a plate: plates always have sides that interfere with the classic cutting method.

In general, excuse me for such a recipe with the volume of "War and Peace", but the classic polenta with all the bells and whistles is a dish that requires a lot of explanation. Because of the bells and whistles and because all the utensils for its preparation in modern kitchens are simply not used. For example, I only make this polenta for family holidays. It's a bit of a show. But this is tradition. Our son is just as interested in cutting polenta with a string as his father and uncles were interested in doing as a child.

Maybe cook all the same polenta according to the recipe that you have on the package? It's definitely easier.