What do I do with polenta?

[majesticallyawkward]

I've found myself in possession of 2 packs of ready made polenta. DH thought it was the dry stuff.

I've never eaten or used it before, any tried and tested recipes?

Lemon polenta cake

Put it in the bin, be thankful you saved yourself, and pour yourself a big gin

Mmmm I love polenta, I'm from north Italy where we eat it lots -

My favourite is polenta taragna, polenta mixed with lots of cheeses - not sure how well that works with ready made though.
Also good with sausages and things with mushroom sauces
Or, polenta, fried egg and asparagus.

If you want to pretend to be an Italian farmer you can have it with milk. Literally hot polenta and cold milk in a bowl.

Then with any leftover polenta you fry it and either sprinkle sugar on it or put cheese and tomato on top to make polenta pizza.

What @Sforsh49 said! Life's too short for polenta

Fry it in slices

Serve with any dish with lots of nice juices (casseroles, tomato dishes, mushroom dishes) as a soaker upper

Slice - into 10mm or so thick slices - that's about half an inch in old money - and shallow fry gently in olive oil. I say 'gently' because it doesn't take to being pushed about too much. Serve with a tomato based sauce. That's what I do.

I slice and shallow fry then pile fried mushrooms/pancetta/ spinach on top. More of a starter or lunch but I only eat small portions and that will do me for dinner. Maybe google for more adventurous recipes?

In Italy I’ve had served plain with honey as an intermediary course. Wouldn’t recommend but it’s versatile I guess!

The ready made stuff isn't great. You could cut it into chip shapes, season well (very well!), brush with oil and maybe some parmesan and bake until crispy.

Eat with a tomato pasta sauce. With creamy meat stew as a potato replacement. Make polenta pizza - spread it in an oven tray - nice and thick so it doesn't dry out -and put pizza toppings on it. Bake in oven like pizza. Make it into round cakes and fry it - s.american style - replacement for something like has browns.

I've just been searching for polenta recipes and have found a lovely one on the Olive website for braised sausages with cheesy polenta. Tempted to try it tomorrow.

I had served like mash with meat balls and a ragu it was very nice.

Put it in the bin! There's a million other delicious things to eat!

Yes, yummy with any thing casseroley or a tomato-based sauce. You could even have bolognaise with it.

I microwave slices rather than fry, cos I'm lazy.

Who gave them to you?

I realise this might be an Italian cuisine sin, but slice and bake with romescu sauce on top.

Repoint your brickwork with it. Awful stuff.

I make it up in the pan then let it cool in a baking tray. I then griddle it when it’s cool and eat with a creamy mushroom suace. Oh yum. Or cook with it or use it on the base of pizzas.

Golly I love polenta!!!

That said the ready made stuff isn't so good but it can be nice.

Like a pp above I'd cut it into strips, season with salt pepper and Parmesan and fry gently in olive oil. It's lovely stuff to soak up a rich sauce.

I like serving it with brisket (or other tough beef cuts that need long braising) that's been braised in a tomato based sauce for hours and hours (I use onions, celery, garlic, carrots plus tinned tomato, some white wine if I have some open or a tsp of white wine vinegar and blitz smooth. Seer the beef then add to the sauce and cook in oven or on a job for 3 hours or more until it's tender. Finish with some fresh basil or use dried but put it in earlier).

I had a lovely polenta recipe with veggie stuffed peppers and polenta with gorgonzola
Very easy and delicious. Peppers just had fresh topped tomatoes black olives and (something else).... basil, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Baked in the oven. Cook polenta and add in some blue cheese chunks. Blue cheese should stay a bit chunky.

Urghhh, yuk. Yeah, sorry, I pride myself on having no food waste but, even I would put that in the bin.

Very mixed opinions! I saw some recipes for pizza with it, and I do like a creamy mushroom dish....

I've never had it before so not sure what to expect, I don't like food waste if I can avoid it, but also have a fussy 5yo and 36yo 😂

Par-boil potatoes like you would for roast, pot the polenta over them and roast as normal.

Delicious!

Another one for putting it in the bin and forgetting about it.. lockdown is bad enough

I love lemon polenta cake. Mmmmm

The ready made stud tends to be overly salty in my experience. I agree with PP to slice up and fry then top with a sauce, something with a bit of acidity is best to cut it.