In Praise Of Polenta
November 5, 2008
We’re all trying to eat well and save a buck too, no? Last night while I was eating panfried polenta with chicken marinara, I started thinking about polenta and what a wonderfully frugal, healthy food it is.
photo credit: ChazWags
I bought a bag of Bob`S Red Mill Corn Grits (Polenta)
Polenta is a staple food in northern Italy, and is eaten in Latin America too. Remember reading about Laura Ingalls eating “fried cornmeal mush”? That was basically leftover corn grits that, after they sat and congealed in the pan, were sliced and fried in bacon grease. The resulting food is creamy, warm, and delicious – and far healthier than the “grits” we Southerners eat that have all the good stuff in the whole corn removed.
Polenta is wonderful for people who have allergy issues with wheat and gluten.
You can serve polenta just about any place you can pasta, or potatoes. It’s delicious for dinner with marinara sauce (tomato based or not), fish, chicken, greens, and legumes. For breakfast, you can cook the corn grits and serve them hot with butter alongside eggs, or by themselves. Some people like to slice and fry the polenta and serve it with gravy or maple syrup. The kids love it!
Instead of buying polenta premade in the tube, it’s cheap and easy to make it yourself by simply cooking the corn grits first and letting them sit. If you grease the pan it will pop right out on a plate (just invert it after it’s cooled completely).
photo credit: Special*Dark
In the next couple of weeks I’ll be sharing more frugal healthy eating tips. If you have some recipes or tips you would like to share, please contact me using the form here and I’ll publish them.
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