Eggplant Ragout With Creamy Polenta Recipe - Tasting Table (2024)

FAQs

What do you eat with creamy polenta? ›

Cooked veggies are the perfect way to add hearty texture, richness, and flavor to creamy polenta. Try pairing it with roasted broccoli, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, butternut squash, or cauliflower, with grilled mixed vegetables or zucchini, or with sautéed mushrooms.

It takes on the flavors of its added ingredients, which can be as simple as its traditional partners, butter and cheese. Often porridge-style polenta is served topped with sautéed seasonal vegetables, meats and seafood.

All it requires is a little forethought. The trick is to presoak the polenta in its liquid for several hours before cooking it. This step helps fully hydrate the cornmeal before you even start cooking it, which in turn drastically cuts down on the cooking time.

One of the most popular was the long, thin, purple eggplant from Taiwan known as Ping Tung. This is an exceptional eggplant with sweet, pleasant tasting flesh. The plants are incredibly prolific and produce throughout the entire season.

Since polenta and grits are both made from ground corn, you can use them interchangeably. Bear in mind that grits are higher in starch than polenta, so if you sub in polenta for grits, you won't have to stir it as frequently, but it won't cook up as creamy as grits.

Making polenta is quick and easy and the digestive system loves it. Polenta is high in fiber and low in calories. Due to its neutral taste, it can be combined with various foods and served as breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It is filling and easily digestible.

Polenta (/pəˈlɛntə, poʊˈ-/, Italian: [poˈlɛnta]) is a dish of boiled cornmeal that was historically made from other grains. The dish comes from Italy.

Cook the Polenta Longer

I always thought my polenta looked done after 15 or 20 minutes of cooking, but just because it's thickened doesn't mean the cornmeal has cooked through. Keep on cooking until it tastes creamy, corny, and a little bit sweet. That extra time makes all the difference.

Polenta is so widespread there that northern Italians are sometimes called polentoni, “polenta-eaters.” Polenta is traditionally prepared in a paiolo, a large copper pan tapered at the bottom, and stirred with a long wooden paddle called a tarai.

In Italian cooking, polenta is made with water. Some more Americanized recipes will prompt you to start with milk or stock, but (in my opinion) they are wrong. Hydrating your polenta with water will allow the flavor of the corn to shine, and it will allow each individual grain to absorb salt more readily.

How do you make Martha Stewart polenta? ›

In a large, deep saucepan, bring 5 cups of water to a boil. While whisking constantly, add polenta in a slow, steady stream. Reduce heat to medium, cook until thickened, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, about 15 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in cheese, heavy cream, and butter.

Differences between cornmeal and polenta

Cornmeal is made by grinding dried corn kernels – yellow, white or blue – into fine, medium and coarse textures, while polenta is made from a specific variety of corn called flint corn. Polenta also has a coarser texture than most types of cornmeal.

6. Italian Eggplant. Not to be confused with its doppelganger the globe eggplant, the Italian eggplant has a similar color and shape, but is slightly smaller and sweeter. Plus, it has a more tender flesh than it's meatier American counterpart.

Larger, more mature eggplants can be more bitter, typically because their seeds are larger and seeds tend to hold on to the most bitter flavors. 3. Eggplant Variety: The bitterness can also depend on the variety.

Polenta, slow simmered ground corn, is eaten in many ways, as a main or side dish. It can be served simply, with just butter and cheese, or topped with sauce. It is often spread out to dry a bit and then baked, fried or grilled.

The best side dishes to serve with polenta are sautéed mushrooms, roasted vegetables, pulled pork, beef steak, caramelized onion, chicken salad, pest pork chops, Italian sausage, braised greens, tomato and basil salad, grilled chicken, caponata, and shrimp scampi.

Polenta is also delicious enjoyed on its own as a breakfast cereal. Though there are products specifically labeled "polenta," you can make this dish with any stone-ground coarse cornmeal, such as the bags you get for making cornbread.

All you have to do is heat, slice, and serve, and how you prepare it is up to you. Polenta can take many forms. This precooked polenta comes in the form of a soft and chewy tube, making it perfect for slicing and grilling, pan or deep frying, baking, roasting, and even microwaving.