Light and fully creamy polenta is the perfect side for meat or roasted veggies.
One of the tastiest, most versatile, and easiest side dishes to make is polenta.
It makes a wonderful serving base forosso bucco,short ribs, or oxtail.
Elise Bauer
It also makes a great base for vegetables, such as mushrooms or roasted broccoli.
What Is Polenta?
Polenta is a porridge throw in dish popular in Northern Italy.
Elise Bauer
Here in North America, it is generally made exclusively with coarsely ground cornmeal.
Think of polenta as an Italian version of grits!
But made with yellow corn instead of the white corn of grits.
To make it, we first whisk polenta (coarse cornmeal) into boiling salted water.
Then we lower the heat, stir in a little butter and cook the polenta for about 25 minutes.
When the polenta is cooked through, soft and tender, we stir in some cream cheese to serve.
This polenta is so light, so fluffy, and creamy, it could almost be a dessert.
Change It Up!
This recipe is meant to be a guideline, feel free to experiment with it.
What Kind of Cornmeal Should I Use for Polenta?
Look for a coarse grained yellow cornmeal; this will give you the right polenta texture.
Fine grain cornmeal tends to cook up to mush.
There are many brands that sell cornmeal specifically for polenta and say so on the package.
Those are a good bet.
Stir vigorously after reheating to fluff.
Stir vigorously after reheating to fluff.
Lower the heat to a very low simmer and add the butter.
Continue to whisk the polenta until it starts to thicken.
Then cover the pan and let the polenta cook for 25 minutes.
Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon so that the polenta doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
The polenta should be soft and tender when done.
If not, let it cook a little longer.
Add the cream cheese and stir it into the polenta.
Taste and add more salt if necessary.
(you might also add more cream cheese if you want it to be even creamier.)
