Polenta Power!

Polenta is something that nowadays brings to mind images of fancy restaurants and tiny, elegant meals, but this is a far cry from where the humble dish started. It's name comes from the Latin word for "porridge", and in Italy the word "polenta" is used as a name for all kinds of simple grain-and-water gruels. The bright yellow polenta we in America are most familiar with is made out of the exact same thing as the very unglamorous Southern staple, grits: plain old cornmeal. The dish goes by many names all over Europe, the Americas, and Africa, but when it comes right down to it, polenta is peasant food. Cheap, filling, and easy enough to eat with whatever's on hand.

Today I've had polenta two ways. The first way I had it was sort of like a savory corn-based oatmeal, topped with diced tomatoes, mushrooms, a little cheese, and a fried egg.

Hot, filling, and comes together in just a few minutes. Yum. Then for dinner I enjoyed yet another application of this delicious porridge, showing off a very different usage:

This was a very good mixed-greens salad with almonds and a tangy blueberry vinaigrette. Since polenta thickens dramatically when left to sit in a cool place, I refrigerated a little from my lunch inside a ramekin for dicing and baking later for nice herbed croutons that are crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. (In the back you can see my dessert-- a tiny raspberry-nectarine clafoutis for one-- but more on that later!)

How do you make polenta? Couldn't be simpler. All you need is:

• cornmeal (the kind that's like $1.19 for a huge cylinder by Quaker is just fine)
• water
• salt

Bring water to a boil and pour in the cornmeal slowly, mixing regularly until it settles at a thickness you like. Salt to taste. That's it.

If you want to dress it up a little,consider adding a couple pinches of whatever herbs you like to the water as it's heating (I used rosemary, parsley, and some cracked black pepper this time), or substitute some of the water with milk and add a generous handful (or two) of grated cheese at the last minute. Delicioso!

And let me tell you about this salad. Its foundation is a nice light but slightly bitter generic "spring mix" into which I added some very thin rounds of carrots (use a vegetable peeler), red onion, toasted and slivered almonds, and a very little nice reggiano cheese. I made my own blueberry vinaigrette for this by microwaving 7 or 8 blueberries until they burst, then mixing in about a teaspoon of vinegar (red wine vinegar would have been nice), a teaspoon of good olive oil, a pinch of salt and black pepper, and a little dab of honey. This made just enough for my one salad. The creaminess of the polenta croutons worked really well to offset all the tangy ingredients... and also to soak up the little vinaigrette remaining once I had finished the rest of the salad! The almonds also lent a nice warm, rich undertone that I think the mix really benefited from. The bright colors popping out of the dark greens looked like a bunch of little moons....

Finally, the clafoutis was an experiment to see if I could wing the recipe by feel so as to only make two ramekin-sized ones. All I did was beat together an egg and a roughly equal amount of milk, plus a good squeeze of honey and a pinch of salt, then added pinches of flour until it looked about right. I think I may have added a little too much (it's a bit dry), but the good news is that now I know that the recipe is awfully forgiving!