Creamy Polenta Recipe with Roasted Beets - Love and Lemons (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making polenta? ›

The trick is to presoak the polenta in its liquid for several hours before cooking it. This step helps fully hydrate the cornmeal before you even start cooking it, which in turn drastically cuts down on the cooking time.

The 45 minutes of cooking time is crucial. I always thought my polenta looked done after 15 or 20 minutes of cooking, but just because it's thickened doesn't mean the cornmeal has cooked through. Keep on cooking until it tastes creamy, corny, and a little bit sweet. That extra time makes all the difference.

Cooked veggies are the perfect way to add hearty texture, richness, and flavor to creamy polenta. Try pairing it with roasted broccoli, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, butternut squash, or cauliflower, with grilled mixed vegetables or zucchini, or with sautéed mushrooms.

In Italy, you'll find polenta made from yellow cornmeal or white cornmeal, though yellow is more common. The best polenta is made from stone ground corn, which comes in a coarse, medium, or fine grind. Cornmeal labeled polenta is usually a coarse-grind, but you can make the dish with a medium or fine-grind.

In a large, deep saucepan, bring 5 cups of water to a boil. While whisking constantly, add polenta in a slow, steady stream. Reduce heat to medium, cook until thickened, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, about 15 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in cheese, heavy cream, and butter.

The top of the polenta might seem a bit hardened when you uncover it, but never fear. Adding the fat (in this case, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and unsalted butter) and a little vigorous whisking will produce the creamy results you expect.

The Liquid

In Italian cooking, polenta is made with water. Some more Americanized recipes will prompt you to start with milk or stock, but (in my opinion) they are wrong. Hydrating your polenta with water will allow the flavor of the corn to shine, and it will allow each individual grain to absorb salt more readily.

Cover the pot and let the polenta cook while you go about making the rest of dinner. Every 10 minutes or so, uncover the pot and give it a good stir to make sure it's cooking evenly and the sides aren't drying out. Thirty to forty minutes later, your polenta is ready for the table.

(Which is why some recipes for polenta dictate that the constant stirring is truly necessary only at the beginning and then intermittently.) Placing the pot in an oven surrounds it with a uniform, unvarying temperature. When the temperature is constant, the stirring need not be.

Spoon steamed or cooked veggies over hot polenta. Add cheese, herbs or other favorite seasonings. Top polenta with your favorite pasta sauce. Add sautéed greens and protein of choice including meats, cheese, lentils and legumes.

What do Italians do with polenta? ›

Polenta is even used to make desserts such as pinza, a Veneto cornmeal and fruit cake; torta nicolotta, an aromatic cake seasoned with grappa and fennel seeds traditionally made with leftover polenta; and brustengolo, an apple-walnut polenta pudding popular in Umbria, especially in the Perugia province.

You can serve this basic side dish on its own or alongside protein such as Pressure-Cooker Short Ribs, pan-seared chicken, or seafood.

Since polenta and grits are both made from ground corn, you can use them interchangeably. Bear in mind that grits are higher in starch than polenta, so if you sub in polenta for grits, you won't have to stir it as frequently, but it won't cook up as creamy as grits.

Surprisingly, polenta (which is none other than yellow cornmeal) is a powerful source of antioxidants like phenolic compounds, which can help reduce inflammation.

It's recommended that you oil the grill and brush some fresh oil on both sides of the polenta squares; this will ensure gorgeous grill marks and the polenta remain intact.