<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Sorry folks for taking so long to send polenta recipes....I had lots of
responses and these are just a sample....sorry also for the length of
the post....if you are not interested in cooking polenta, then
don't read any further.

regards
gretel

ps gretel doesn't like polenta  :-)


A General Recipe.

Put a large kettle on one burner with water.  Heat to boiling.  Put heavy
kettle or large sauce pan on the stove under medium high heat.  Get pan warm.
Add polenta and nothing else to pan - about 1 cup.  Stir the polenta in the
pan until toasted.  Usually 3 - 5 minutes.  Keep stiring so it does not burn.
With a ladle start adding boiling water to the toasted polenta, allowing the
corn meal to absorb the water Keep adding water until the corn meal polenta
reaches the consistency you like - I use a wisk to keep it a little on the
fluffy side.

When it is at the consistency you like, take from heat and add what ever
other ingredients you wish.  I usually add cheese, some seasoning, such Ms
Dash spicy, or some tomatoes, or some onion and garlic, or whatever.  After
stirring in the added ingredients, pour it into a baking dish and level the
mixture.  Put it into the oven and bake it at 350 degrees for a while, long
enough to insure that all of the added ingredients have heated up with the
corn meal and cooked or softened appropriately.  Usually a half hour will do
it.  Take from the oven and let cool enough so you can cut it into serving
pieces.  Serve warm with a meal.  You can cover with a sauce appropriate for
the added ingredients - such as a tomato sauce.  You can also let totally
cool and serve later.  I usually grill it or heat in a ribbed pan on top of
the stove.


A Microwave Recipe

The polenta I use is dry, coarse ground cornmeal.  I measure out 3 cup water,
3/4 cup polenta, salt and microwave at high for 4 minutes.  I stir it and
then microwave for another 3 minutes.  I tends to bubble over, so make i in a
large plastic container, not a small one.  I hope this works for you.  It's
very easy.  Use more water if you like it soft.


Ready Cooked Polenta

You should slice it into pieces about 1/2 inch thick and then grill it or fry
it in a pan with nonstick spray.  It's really good with marinara sauce, or as
a replacement for english muffins in ini-pizzas.  It's also really good with
mushrooms sauteed in garlic.  Cooking Light magazine has some really good
recipes for polenta.  Maybe check out their website...


Polenta Websites

 http://www.panix.com/~donwiss/polenta
 http://soar.berkley.edu/recipes/ has 25 polenta recipes and over 600
      cheesecake recipes.


The Italian Method

For one person, I use a half liter of water, a glass of milk, a tablespoon of
olive oil, a teaspoon of salt, four tablespoon of italian polenta
(prefereably precooked).I put water, milk, oil and salt in a pot and bring to
boil.  When the mix is boiling I add very slowly the polenta, mixing the
preparation with an handwhisk to avoid it becomes clotted.  I cook the
polenta (slowly but mantaining boiling) for 45 min (5 min for precooked
floor).  During cooking, I mix the polenta continuously with a big wood
spoon.  If it necessary, I add some milk during cooking, to mantain the mix
sufficiently soft.  The polenta is ready when it becames detached to the
pot's walls.

I like to eat polenta adding some soft cheese or sausage boiled in tomato
sauce, or simply with olive oil and toasted sesame seeds.

When polenta is hot I pour into bread loaf pan and let cool.  I slice it
about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.  Place pieces on greased cookie sheet and broil
each side until light brown.  Top with grated cheese and broil quickly just
until cheese bubbles.  Serve

In the summer I serve either the mush or the pan fried/broiled squares with
homemade ratatouille.  Italians frequently add several handfuls of grated
cheese(parm.  or romano) just as the polenta is finished cooking, then mix
in.  That will flavor the polenta quite a bit but will also increase the
calories, if that is a concern.

Basically you can use this as you would any starch or pasta as a base of
foods with lots of flavor.  In itself, plain polenta is not very interesting,
but like potatoes or pasta it is flavored with other things.  It is important
when you make polenta from scratch, to very slowly add the cornmeal to
rapidly boiling water while furiously stirring with the other hand.  This
prevents lumps from forming which can make polenta kind of yucky if it is
full of lumps.  Also make sure you stir continually about every 2-4 minutes
while cooking so that the polenta becomes creamy and smooth and less coarse.
If you find lumps, press them against the side of the pot with a large spoon
to break up.


Other Ideas:

I cut it up into the shape of lasagna noodles, and follow my old lasagna
recipe only substituting the polenta "noodles" for regular noodles.  You can
also cut the polenta into any shape and use it as you used to use regular
noodles, in soup, with sauce, etc.  I also sometimes fry up onions,
mushrooms, and peppers, then add it in the polenta while cooking it for
additional flavor.  This is also good cut up with spaghetti sauce added.

You can also pan fry with non-stick spray or butter.  Fry each side until
golden.  Eat with melted butter or for breakfast some people put maple syrup
or some brown sugar on and eat like pancakes.

I also eat polenta soft like a mush just as it is done cooking.  I serve it
in a bowl, topped with any tomato/Italian style dishes like tomato sauce with
veggies, sauce with meat etc., sprinkled on top with parmesan/romano cheese.

You can serve it Under tomato sauce and meat, as if it were spaghetti, with a
bit of ground up cheese on top to melt.  Southerners like to refrigerate it,
slice it, and fry it in butter and pour pancake syrup over it for breakfast
as if it were pancakes or waffles.  You can make it a little more watery
(softer) and put butter, salt, pepper and runnyfried eggs on top -- mash &
chop with a fork and dig in.  You can eat it with raisins and sugar and milk
like cereal ...

You might try simmering for 25 minutes, then slapping the lid on the pan and
letting it steam without heat for another 20 minutes before trying to use it.
That's how the Italians do it.  Southern U.S.  people tend to cook it for a
shorter time -- they like the "gritty" texture of the rough corn flour -- the
resulting food is called "grits."