How to Cook POLENTA Like an Italian

Polenta can be confusing, at least to me! Just figuring out what to buy can be a minefield of potential pitfalls. Will instant polenta work? Is cornmeal the same thing as polenta? Fine or coarse? What about grits? Don't even get me started on the best way to cook it...

In this video, Eva explains what polenta is (it's not what I thought), which kinds to buy (and which to avoid), how to properly cook it, and give some "advanced" recipes from all over Italy. Welcome to Polenta 101!

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00:00 - Polenta 101: The Basics of Italian Polenta
00:50 - What is Polenta?
01:23 - Types of "Polenta": Corn Meal, Instant Polenta or Grits?
04:44 - How to Cook Polenta Like a (Northern) Italian
07:39 - How to Serve & Eat Polenta
08:38 - Intermediate & Advanced Polenta Recipes
10:32 - A Northern Italian Polenta Recipe
12:43 - Polenta Taragna
13:56 - A Central Italian Polenta Recipe
16:40 - Polenta with Meat Ragù | Sausage & Ribs
17:44 - A Southern Italian Polenta Recipe
19:32 - Calabrian Frascatula Polenta
21:11 - Pasta Grammarian In Action!

#polenta #italianfood #recipe

[PastaGrammar]

We hope you guys learned something new about polenta with us today! What ingredient should we cover the basics of next?

[Roberto-oilm]

Actually, the difference between grits and corn meal is much greater than just the color. True, grits are traditionally white, but they're made from hominy which is corn treated with lime water or lye. The process is called nixtamalization and was known by the Myans. It does several things, including freeing niacin, thus preventing pellagra. Along with ordinary beans, a human can survive on these two foods. And it allows the processed corn to be made into a dough for further processing into things like masa used for making tortillias. Regular cornmeal will not form a dough with the addition of water. Nixtamalization also helps prevent the formation of mold.

[maryannegiangregorio]

My dad was from Abruzzo and you brought tears to my eyes serving polenta on the wood board. Great memories eating it with tripe! Molto grazie!!

[damianolanzoni]

In my family you had the three stages of polenta: first the freshly made and soft polenta.
Then the leftovers were cut into slices and toasted on a plate or on the grill (like bruschetta). The parts that were not toasted were sautéed in a pan with butter and covered with sugar.
Also in my town (Mantova) leftover polenta is used to make a "pancake" called "Fiapon".

My grandparentes used to told me me how polenta was the food of the poor in the toughest times. For dinner they ate slices which they gave a little flavor by rubbing them on a smoked herring (Cospeton) and they also usually eat polenta for breakfast in the milk.

[charlesward]

PASTA GRAMMARIAN IN ACTION; My daughter had a dozen ears of 2-year-old decorative corn, a mix deep red, some yellow, black, and white that she asked if I wanted to put in the compost heap. It was clean, dry, and still wholesome (dried corn lasts for years) I rubbed the kernels off of the cobs and got about 1 1/2 pounds of corn. I ran it through my Country Living grain mill on a coarse setting and used it to make polenta with butter, Swiss (no smoked mozzarella on hand) and parmigiana regiano (from Costco) I spread it in a 9 x 13 pan chilled for 4 hours (it was PINK!) pan fried it until golden brown, topped it with my own marinara sauce, an olive tapenade with plenty of chopped Kalamata olives and fresh grated Parmesan cheese. Thanks for the inspiration to try something new!

[stampdealer]

Abruzzo heritage here, and I LOVE polenta with sausage sauce and pecorino romano!! 🤩

[insertname]

Romanians have had polenta (we call it mămăligă) as a staple food for centuries, using a different type of grain (buckwheat or millet) prior to corn. I have visited northern Italy recently and discovered that Italian polenta uses a less processed type of corn flour/ground corn, has a more rustic and grain-y taste than ours ; we use a very ”pure” processed maize, few impurities.

[securityvlogger]

All I can say, is you to make me happy. Thanks.

In all their videos, I admire how Eva just gets on with it. She doesn’t gild the lily like so many gushing Youtube presenters who end up hiding behind their ‘twist’ on everything. Brava Eva, brava.

[williamrobelen]

I never understood polenta until now, can't wait to try some of these!

Corn products are naturally gluten free but the package label lets the buyer know that it is processed separately from wheat and tested so that there's no cross contamination.

[joelciardella]

Polenta was a staple growing up. My family is from Lammari, just outside of Lucca. When my wife and I went to Italy and spent a whole week in Toscana the food just felt so much like home, only better!

[edwardhenne]

I grew up in Charleston, S.C. And of course growing up on the south I'm quite familiar with grits and corn meal. The difference between corn meal and grits is corn meal is just ground corn, but grits is turned first into hominy before its ground. Also, in S.C. you can buy yellow grits because some folks just like the yellow better which was common years ago. However, when groceries began to be created enmass by conglomerates they pretty much stopped making the yellow for a time. However, there's now a mill in Charleston that makes the yellow grits.

[matthewtoohey]

I love that Eva was so keen to eat the polenta taragna that she forgot the obligatory 'buon appetito!' 🤣

[Nuno]

I'm Italian (from Napoli) and never cooked polenta because, you know, it's rare here to eat polenta. With this I can do it properly and start discovering this dish.

[denacrescini]

My Nonni always made rabbit with polenta. I still do to this day! I love it!

[mattmackmack]

I can't believe this channel doesn't have like a million subscribers

[robertgoudy]

of polenta .
So informative, and as always, entertaining and fun.

[johnmc]

Fried Mush is a Southern US analog, where leftover corn grits (or boiled cornmeal) are often left to cool and congeal. It is then sliced, dredged in flour, drenched in beaten egg, pan-fried, and served with maple syrup, honey, molasses, or sorghum syrup.

[Syl]

I'm from Campania (from a small town near Aversa, in the province of Caserta) and my great grandma and my grandma used to make polenta in the early morning, to feed the men of the family that were going to work in the fields.
They thought it would give them the energy they needed in order to endure many hours of work.
When I was a kid, sometimes we had some special "polenta evenings" with the whole family, especially in the winter. That polenta was creamy and loose, it had a very fine texture and my grandma put in it the same stuff everytime: some fried "cicoli" (small pieces of solid pork fat), small pieces of aged pecorino cheese, small pieces of dry aged sausages and black pepper.
The perfect comfort food.

[MT-krcn]

Finally! Polenta.., never cooked it, so we will learn from Eva and at the same time we learn some italian words too🤩🤗🙏😍