Last week we had two days of being holed up in the house. It was so cold and frigid, there was no school, and we kept ourselves busy inside. I think the kids ended up playing with play-doh for about eight hours, it so seldom comes out that they really had a blast with it. One of those mornings though, I came out to the kitchen to find the container of grits on the counter. Andy had decided he was in the mood for eggs and grits, and thought he’d leave a note for me. I decided that sounded really good, and made up some cheesy grits with fried eggs for breakfast- one of our absolute favorites. As I was stirring the grits though I really wondered why it is that we are such huge fans of grits, but not of polenta. They aren’t that different, after all.
And I couldn’t stop thinking about that. We love cornbread, corn tortillas, grits, hominy, you name it, we really enjoy the things made with corn… so I just had to give polenta another try. It had been a while, almost four years, actually, but I made up a delicious Simple Bolognese sauce from Giada De Laurentiis, and grabbed the corn meal to make some polenta. It came together quickly enough, but as I whisked this pan of corn mush, I knew this wasn’t going to cut it. No way around it, my kids were not going to dive into a bowl of mushy corn stuff. So I poured the hot polenta into a baking dish, smoothed it out, and set it in the garage to firm up for a few hours.
When it had chilled up, I was able to cut it into firm pieces, and I decided to pan fry them. After both sides had very lightly browned up, I gave each piece a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and popped them in the oven to stay warm. The whole family was very curious about these sticks I was making. I really hoped they turned out okay!
We topped them with the bolognese and tucked in. Andy and I both went in for seconds, we really enjoyed the polenta! The kids…well, they were troopers and tried, but after a while Abigail turned to me and said something like “Mommy, they smell good, and they look good, but they don’t taste like they look.” Ah, well, you can’t win them all.
But the moral of the story is that we no longer hate polenta. I will no longer fear it, and actually, this is a great thing, because I probably have hundreds of recipes that call for polenta, and I’ve always avoided them. While it won’t be something we have super often, it’s now on the approved list. I’ll be interested to try other things with it.
Oh, and by the way, it’s been a while since I made that Simple Bolognese as well, and that was as delicious as I’d remembered it. I added a half pound of ground pork that I had in the freezer, and that was great as well. Definitely comfort food.
Basic Polenta
6 cups water
2 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 cups yellow cornmeal
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a heavy large saucepan. Add 2 teaspoons of salt. Gradually whisk in the cornmeal. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the mixture thickens and the cornmeal is tender, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat. Add the butter, and stir until melted.
To make firm polenta, pour the hot polenta into a 9 x 13 baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Chill for about 2 hours, or until firm. Cut into sticks or squares and pan fry in olive oil before serving.
Simple Bolognese
2 teaspoons olive oil1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves,peeled and minced
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 pound ground chuck beef 1/2 pound ground pork
1 can crushed tomatoes — (28-ounce)
1/4 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
8 fresh basil leaves, chopped (Or 1 1/2 tsp dried basil)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
Directions:
In a 6 quart pot, add the extra-virgin olive oil.
When hot, add the onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until the onions become very soft, about 8 minutes. Add the celery and carrot and saute for 5 minutes.
Raise heat to high and add the ground beef and pork. Saute, stirring frequently and breaking up any large lumps and cook until meat is no longer pink, about 8 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, parsley and basil and cook,covered, over medium low heat until the sauce thickens, about 1/2 hour. Finish bolognese with Pecorino Romano. Check for seasoning. Serve hot.