Step-by-step recipe for making classic polenta. How to make cornmeal polenta Italian cornmeal dish

Polenta is a dish that is very popular in Italian cuisine today. It is very simple to prepare and will definitely appeal to those who love corn porridge, because essentially it is a thick, dense corn porridge, cut into cubes. Very often, polenta is supplemented with cheese, herbs, vegetables and mushrooms, poured with olive oil with aromatic additives and all kinds of sauces. Polenta can be served as an appetizer, spread with some kind of pate, but most often it is served as a side dish for meat dishes. It turns out very satisfying and nutritious!

Ingredients

150 grams corn flour
600 ml water
a little salt

To prepare polenta, it is best to choose medium or finely ground corn grits, since coarse ones will take a long time to cook and will not create a characteristic homogeneous structure.

How to cook polenta

To prepare polenta, take cereal and water in a ratio of 1: 4. Boil water in a small saucepan with a thick bottom, adding a pinch of salt. When the water boils, add corn grits. Stir the cereal so that there are no lumps. Cook the polenta, stirring occasionally, over low heat. At first it will gurgle.

But very soon the cereal will absorb water and turn into a thick porridge.

Continuing to stir the polenta, cook it for 30-35 minutes. The porridge should begin to stick to the walls and even burn a little - do not try to scrape off the stuck layer. The polenta itself will become very thick: if you move it to one side of the pan, it should not spread.

Line a small rectangular tin with baking paper and spoon the polenta into the tin. Small plastic food trays are quite suitable for this.

Firmly compact and level the polenta so that there are no voids inside.

Then cover the cereal and place it in the refrigerator until it is completely cool. During this time, the polenta will set, become even denser and keep its shape. Remove the polenta from the tray and cut into 1cm thick pieces.

Place these pieces on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Place the polenta in the oven, preheated to 200-220 degrees for 5-10 minutes. You can put it under the grill - then it will have delicious golden brown edges.

Place a few sticks of polenta on a plate in a stack, and before serving, you can top it with any sauce or vegetable oil.

How to cook polenta? How to submit it? How to make a rich snack from “poor” porridge? We will consider all these culinary issues in this article.
Recipe contents:

Among the many Italian culinary treasures, many dishes are universal treasures: pizza, risotto, pasta, polenta. This is the most ringing “roll call” of Italian dishes. In this famous list, a special place is occupied by polenta, which has evolved from a poor man's porridge into a gourmet dish. In gourmet restaurants, the dish costs a considerable amount. However, this dish is both democratic and rich.

Cooking polenta: subtleties and secrets

Polenta is a dish made from corn flour. This 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 flour. The dish should be creamy and smooth because... During cooking, the starch completely dissolves. Cheap low-grade flour will not give such a result, and larger particles will not completely dissolve.

To make polenta soft, use 1 part corn flour to 3 parts water.
Cook the dish over low heat for 40-50 minutes, stirring constantly.
“Historical” technology involves the use of copper utensils for cooking polenta.
The readiness of the 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 yellow is used more often.
It is advisable to give preference to coarse flour, then the dish will be more healthy. Fine grinding will result in a more tender porridge with a creamy texture.
To serve polenta, pour it into a bowl moistened with cold water. Leave to stand for 10 minutes, then put on a plate.
The remaining polenta is kept in the refrigerator under plastic wrap for up to 3 days.
If you need thick porridge for frying, then place it on a greased baking sheet 1.2 cm thick and leave until thickened or bake at 175°C until it warms up.
Cut the thick polenta into squares using a pizza cutter or a regular kitchen knife.
Before slicing, it is kept for some time in hot water.
To avoid lumps, flour is slowly poured into boiling water, stirring constantly. Another easy way to avoid the formation of lumps is to pour corn flour into cold water, whisk quickly, and then bring to a boil.
If the polenta is burnt on the bottom, transfer it to another pan without scraping the burnt bottom and continue cooking. At the same time, it is stirred often.
Remove the lumpy polenta from the stove, knead the lumps, and 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 water with added salt. For a more tasty and healthy porridge, use yellow or white flour, and coarse flour for a thick consistency.

Calorie content per 100 g - 87 kcal.
Number of 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 add corn grits, stirring constantly.
Once it comes back to a boil and bubbles form, reduce the heat.
Continue cooking the cereal for 30 minutes, stirring constantly. If necessary, add water or add porridge.
When the mass lags behind the walls of the pan, the dish is ready.
Transfer the mixture to a tray, shape into 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 consistency of the recipe.

Ingredients:

Yellow corn flour - 0.5 tbsp.
Drinking water - 1.5 tbsp.
Salt - to taste

Step-by-step preparation:

Boil water in a thick-bottomed saucepan to prevent the porridge from burning.
Gradually add cornmeal, stirring with a wooden spoon.
Add salt and stir.
Bring the mixture to a boil again, stirring constantly.
Reduce the heat to low 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 it is ready. The consistency of the polenta should be smooth and creamy.
Place the Italian delicacy on a cutting board, shape into a rectangle and refrigerate.

Looking for a classic polenta recipe? Well, I think to myself: if you came here, it means you are interested, and specifically in the classics, and not in what is written on the packaging. So, my dears, I have to disappoint you. Right from the very beginning. Look at this photo. Do you have such a boiler? No? If not, then you won’t get classic polenta, no matter what recipe you use to cook it. Because classic polenta is made in a thick-walled copper kettle over a wood fire. That's it! (By the way, "basta" is Italian.)

On a wood fire - this does not mean "on a fire." In Italy, until the end of the twentieth century, wood-burning stoves were very actively used in villages. And not only in Italy, by the way. If, say, you have a wood-burning stove at your dacha, then you have a chance to cook classic polenta. The only catch is the 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 just as quickly when you remove the pan from the heat. Well, the thickness of the boiler allows it to be used in extreme heat, at those temperatures at which modern thin alloyed copper cookware simply deforms and changes color. In short, a pure copper old thick-walled boiler is a THING!!! But they are no longer produced. Ours is hereditary. But I don’t have a wood-burning stove, so even I can’t show you the recipe for classic polenta, even if I have the right boiler. I haven’t scared you off yet, will you continue reading?

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

I also tried classic polenta - exactly once in my life, my father-in-law prepared it when my parents came to meet me. The father-in-law's name was Giuseppe Manyago, he was from South Tyrol, whose inhabitants are called by 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 cast iron flat-bottomed cauldron adapted for electric stoves. Will it suit you?

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

Ingredients for polenta are counted not in grams and milliliters, but in volumes. I converted it to 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 guy at a wood stove, measuring flour and water using scales and a measuring cup?

Our Giuseppe used the following ratio of grains for classic polenta: for 1 measure of coarse grinding - 2 measures of fine grinding. And water - 4 times more than corn grits in total. That is, 12 cups of water, 2 cups of fine cornmeal and 1 cup of coarse 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 that was used to measure out water and cereals.

The water is brought to a boil and salted.

First, pour a bowl of large-caliber cereal into boiling salted water. Cook for about 5 minutes.

And after that, pour in 2 cups of corn flour in a thin stream with very thorough stirring. When they get into the water, the polenta starts spitting wildly, and you can get seriously burned. Much worse than just boiling water, because it is a sticky substance. Therefore, it makes sense to close the pot with polenta for a minute or two.

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

Today is the birthday of the senior representative of our branch of the Manyago family, and the festive dinner was held at our place, so I prepared exactly their favorite option: labor-intensive and scary-looking. In short, what you will see from me is not a cooking defect, but a special honor for the birthday person. 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 am, in fact, whipping it. The parallel stripes on the walls are traces of a spatula. 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. The high heat allows layers of thicker "skin" to form, which I continually stir into the liquid inner layers. Stirring stops when the polenta is actually pushed away from the wall of the boiler in this way. It should form into a single dense lump. The fact that it is heterogeneous is considered a special chic in our country. I’ll cook 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.

After removing from the stove, allow the polenta to cool for 5-10 minutes. It makes sense to pierce its edges with a spatula to the very bottom so that they can be easily separated from the walls. Next, a round serving board is pressed onto the polenta. Under no circumstances should you use a plate! If you want classics, then you need an absolutely flat wooden surface; such plates simply do not exist. I'll show you why a little further.

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

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

Now look carefully. This is a serving of classic polenta, but it’s straight up like a polenta - it doesn’t get any better than a polenta: on a wooden board and with a string. The string should either be tied to two sticks, or have loops at the ends that you can stick your fingers through. It is also advisable to use a flat, wide spoon to transfer layers of polenta onto the eaters’ plates.

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

In general, sorry for such a recipe with the volume of War and Peace, but 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 preparing it are simply not used in modern kitchens. For example, I make this polenta only for family holidays. It's a bit of a show. But these are also traditions. Our son is just as interested in cutting polenta with a string as it was fun for his father and uncles to do as a child.

Maybe you could still prepare the polenta according to the recipe on your package? It's probably simpler.

Corn porridge recipes

25 minutes

90 kcal

5/5 (1)

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

Important points in preparing polenta

Pot To prepare polenta there must be with thick or double bottom. A cast iron casserole is ideal for this. In a thin-walled pan, the polenta is more likely to burn.
You can prepare it as follows: with milk, so on the water. But be sure to add butter.
The smaller grinding corn grits, the more tender the polenta will be. It's better to use cornmeal or real instant polenta.
You need the right polenta stir all the time.
Polenta without parmesan- This is not polenta. Therefore, do not skimp on a small piece of this cheese. In extreme cases, it can be replaced with another hard cheese.
You need to stir the polenta with a wooden or silicone spatula. You can also use it 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 preparation

It is prepared in a similar way. And for lovers of Caucasian cuisine, I recommend preparing it.

How to Serve Polenta

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

The easiest way is to add more piece of butter, mix and serve on plates. In addition, you can put honey or jam on the table.
We will need a small rectangular shape or a boat. Grease the dish with butter. Place the prepared polenta tightly into it and cool completely. When it cools down, put it in the refrigerator for 25 minutes. We pass a knife between the polenta and the mold. Turn over and take out. Cut into 1 cm slices. Place a cheese plate on each piece and place in a hot oven or microwave for 5 minutes.
Grease a baking sheet with oil and spread the polenta. Level it out and leave it to harden. When it becomes hard, cut it into portion squares. You can simply fry them in a frying pan with olive or vegetable oil and serve 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. Place it in a heated frying 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 be cooked polenta with vegetables. To do this, cut any seasonal vegetables into strips: eggplant, pepper, tomato, onion. Simmer them until done. Place the still hot polenta on a plate, spread it apart and place the vegetables in the center.
Can I submit polenta pizza. To do this, form a round cake from the still soft porridge on a greased baking sheet and leave to harden. During this time, fry a couple of mushrooms, chop ham or sausage, and cut cherry tomatoes in half. We put it all on the crust. It can be coated with ketchup or sauce if desired. Sprinkle with grated cheese and bake for 5 minutes in a well-heated oven.
Mix the cottage cheese with chopped herbs. Take some polenta in your hand. We make a depression, put cottage cheese in it and form a ball. These buns can be served directly 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 prevent it from burning, even if you are distracted from stirring.