What is Polenta?

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And what does it taste like?

corn meal - can be totally tasteless - depends how its cooked..

in a recipe i'm considering its used to stuff a chicken breast along with blue cheese and chicken stock... worth giving it a try or not?

not sure I'd bother tbh.

It is quite nice cooked and left to solidify into a cake-type thing that you can use in place of spuds or other carbs, but it doesn't taste of a whole lot.

I don't know if I'd bother, either. I have a really nice low fat polenta lasagna recipe, but it relies a lot on the flavor of the sauce and vegetables. I tried it as a side dish once, and was totally underwhelmed.

thanks everyone :) No polenta it is :)

Polenta is delicious if cooked properly!

DH serves it with gorgonzola in the middle so that it melts and goes gooey with a rich beef casserole and it is yummy!

I think you should try it.

Oooh, that sounds yummy. Do you have the recipe?

i make this all the for dd and ds for breakfast i cook on hob with milk then add banana and cinamon.

Not to keen for me but also good to use as breadcrumbs with a bit of parmasan for homemade chicken nuggets

Food of the Gods - but then my family is from Northern Italy where it comes from.

Won't bother giving any recepies though as I find everyone we offer it to seems to be underwhelmed. I think it is a food that you love cos you grew up with it. It doesn't taste of much on it's own that is true but does potato or plain pasta? It's all in the cooking and the stuff that goes with it.

Yum Yum just thinking about it.

Lazycow I would love to see your polenta recipes - I won't be underwhelmed, promise

Whereabouts in N Italy are your family from Lazycow? DH is Italian too which is prob why we like polenta so much too!!

Sorry haven't been on this thread much

My family come from near Piacenza (Father's family) and near Parma (Mother's family). We have two family houses we visit. We are going this May for a couple of weeks in fact.

My all time favourite polenta recipe is a sort of lasagne version where you layer firm polenta with really good mushroom or beef ragu sauce and parmesan cheese. I have to admit the sauces have to be made well and I never seem to get it right so am always begging my mum to make the sauces when I visit and take loads home to freeze.

I do also like it with wild boar or rabbit stew too though. It is generally served softer for those though. It also goes very well with gorgonzola cheese which is very simple.

I have some polenta here. Not used it as a savoury yet and not sure what to do with it when I do.

I atcually used it to make some orange and polenta biscuits last weekend, which were lovely with chocolate mousse type dessert.

Oh yes! Dh makes a lovely polenta bake with mushrooms, tomamto sauce and mozzarella.

Yummy!

Dh is from Calvisano, nr Brescia.