Oven Polenta
Last night I made very good polenta with the best hands-off method: low and slow, in the oven, from the recipe in The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen by Paula Wolfert. I thought it was awesome, creamy and buttery and corny. August, who's a little under the weather, declared he didn't like it before he even put a spoonful in his mouth. After tons of cajoling, and finally calling it cornmeal, he did try it and said it was good. I guess to some polenta sounds more sophisticated than cornmeal porridge, but not to my 2-year-old.
He helped me make it, so that helped in getting him to try it: We buttered a casserole dish, then put in 1 cup cornmeal, 4 cups water, 1 tablespoon cut-up butter and 1 teaspoon salt. Stirring it with a fork didn't mix it all, but it did get the lumps out of the cornmeal. Then we put it in a 350 degree oven for an hour and 20 minutes. During the latter half of this time the mixture comes together, and it starts to bubble a bit. I got a little nervous that it would splatter all over the inside of the oven. It didn't, but when I make this again I'm using a container that's a little bigger than it needs to be.
Took the polenta out of the oven, stirred it and added more salt, then baked it for another 10 minutes. I stirred Parmesan and more butter into the finished product, about 1/2 cup of the cheese and another tablespoon of butter. Ate it with an eggplant and tomato casserole I poached from the Wednesday Chef, who poached it from Marian Burrows in the NYT, who poached it from Jamie Oliver.
My mother came from the north of Italy and polenta was part of their staple diet. As a result she hated it as she had so much of it. Consequently I have always thought of it in the same way so haven't eaten much of it. But this recipe sounds like it might be worth trying. I love parmesan so I think I will like this one.