Polenta for the Lazy

This one’s a nice dish to have in your repertoire when it’s winter and you’re bored with the stuff you’ve been cooking lately. I won’t say it’s life changing, but it is bloody useful. I’ve taken/stolen/adapted this one from Sara Moulton’s Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals. We’ve done one of her recipes before, as you might recall; like Jacques Pépin, she is one of the few classically trained chefs who actually understand the constraints and limitations of cooking at home, which makes her books quite useful.

As you probably already know, polenta is a Northern Italian porridge made from cornmeal (it’s sometimes referred to as cornmeal mush, but as that is one of the most unappetizing phrases in the English language, we shall not speak of it again). Traditionally, it is made on a stovetop over very low heat, with the cook stirring the polenta the entire time, usually an hour or more.

I’m sure that process appeals to the mortar-and-pestle brigade who scorn post-industrial-revolution cooking methods, just as I’m sure that there are plenty of people who are more than willing to argue (without evidence) that polenta just doesn’t taste right if you don’t stir it just the right way with just the right wooden spoon, stirring in the same direction, over and over, without stopping, for up to 90 minutes. Indeed, many cookbooks not only have you stir constantly, but also demand that you stir the cornmeal into the water as slowly as possible, preferably one grain at a time.

And I’ll be open-minded on this—they may be right. The olde worlde way may well be the best way to make polenta. But there’s no way in hell that I’m stirring something constantly for over an hour. Hence Moulton’s recipe, which is astoundingly easy and which is damned good, if you ask me. Which you didn’t, obviously, as this is a monologue and you are a fictional interlocutor that I am pretending to have a conversation with.

OK, kinda went down the rabbit hole with that one. Let’s move on.

You start with one cup of cornmeal. Many cookbooks demand that you use stoneground, but it really doesn’t matter.

Season it with a teaspoon of kosher salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper. True confession time: I didn’t’ measure the pepper. I just ground a bunch of it over the cornmeal, as shown here.

Add 4 cups/1 quart/1 scant liter of water. 



Give the whole thing a quick whisking to help things blend together.

Cut up 3 tablespoons of butter into slices and toss them into the cornmeal-and-water mixture.

Now put the whole thing into a preheated 350F oven and bake it for 40 minutes.

Seriously, that’s it. You can take a nap if you want.

After 40 minutes, remove it from the oven. 



Take your whisk and give the polenta a stir. Put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes.

Now take it out and allow it to cool for 5 minutes. This is important, as it’s pretty much molten lava when it comes out of the oven. I grated some Parmesan over it while I was waiting for it to cool down.

Now season it with salt and pepper (if necessary) and serve it up. You can have it plain, if you like. Moulton has you stir in grated provolone cheese. I didn’t, as I had other plans in mind.

Specifically, I had some gorgonzola cheese lying around. I also had some mushrooms, which I sautéed and threw on top as well. A nice little winter repast, if I do say so myself. However, polenta also makes an excellent base for pasta sauces, as well as a stew, should you happen to have made one.

Bon appetìt, y’all.

From Sara Moulton, Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals:

Creamy Baked Polenta

1 cup yellow cornmeal or regular (not instant) coarse polenta

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly milled black pepper

2 ounces provolone cheese, grated (about ½ cup)

2 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, finely grated (about ⅔ cup)

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine 4 cups water, the cornmeal, butter, salt and pepper in a 1½-quart baking dish. Bake, uncovered, on the top shelf of the oven for 40 minutes. 

Remove the polenta from the oven, give it a stir, and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove it from the oven, stir in the provolone and salt and pepper to taste; let stand 5 minutes before serving. Serve topped with Parmigiano-Reggiano.