Polenta. What can I do with the stuff ?

I recently made an orange, blueberry and polenta cake which vanished in no time! The Italians serve cooked polenta with things like rabbit stew do that it soaks up the juices and flavours, but I prefer it in CAKE! It was a Waitrose recipe so bound to be on their website if you want to try it

Toss parboiled potatoes in it prior to roasting. Gives a lovely crunchy finish. Think Nigella did it on one of her programmes.

My Italian neighbour used to serve it with a wonderful tomato sauce and lashings of Parmesan, it was delicious.

I've had polenta chips in a restaurant. Delicious! No idea how to make them but I'm sure you could Google a recipe.

What marionk said. It needs a really good pasta sauce on it, tomato or a meat. Delish!

Yes polenta chips are very good

wobblybits and oldgaigin, that's exactly how I felt about polenta the one and only time I tried it.

oh wobblybits, you made me laugh

Yes awful stuff, I had it in Italy possibly in its unadulterated state, it was like tasteless slop

Apparently dry polenta will kill ants. They eat it but can't digest it and it kills them. I read that somewhere yesterday,no idea where. Was it another GN thread?

Love the sound of the cakes. I know my daughter uses it but I never have . What does it come from?

Ruby song, it's not only ants., even cooked it has been known to have the same effect on humans

Had a go with your recipe Hilda. The chips turned out quite well but were still not very tasty.

I coat chicken breast pieces with polenta mixed with tarragon and fry them in olive oil.

I love the taste of polenta. The first fime I made it was a recipe for children back in the eighties and I have done it a lot since. You boil up some milk and water with salt and add the polenta and bring to the boil again, stir in some grated parmesan and press into a cake tin (it's very stiff) and bake for 20-25 min. You can cut it into squares and fry it or eat it straight away with a spicy sauce. It's lovely on its own - has a nutty, comforting taste.

I'm sorry the polenta chips were not very tasty. I was going to make some myself, but maybe not now. ??

Have a go hildajenniJ. You may be a better cook than I am and I wonder if a stronger cheese might make a difference.

A really tasty ragu is the way to go, or add parmigiano or gorgonzola to the polenta when you cook it. I make bread which mixes polenta, sesame seeds, sunflower seed and melon seeds with ordinary flour (Thankyou Gino Da Campo!)
Cooked polenta, left to cool and then cut into squares,can be coated with cheese and grilled.
If you are making pizzas a scattering of raw polenta will make the pizza easy to slide into the oven.

I would try some but I don't really like the flavour or texture of corn bread or Dorritos and other corn based snacks.