Easy Homemade Polenta

I love soft, warm polenta as a canvas for all sorts of flavors, from seafood in cream sauce to a spicy fra diavlo, but I have always purchased my polenta in those handy supermarket polenta logs. I had no idea just how easy homemade polenta was to make until last week.

Inspired again by the Moosewood cookbook, I decided to make homemade polenta cutlets with a spicy tomato “meat”sauce. The polenta was as simple as following the directions on the bag of Bob’s Red Mill organic polenta corn grits.

Two cups of cornmeal, six cups of water, salt, and butter later, I was forming my polenta cutlets in a well oiled glass baking dish. Fruity California olive oil gave them some beautiful flavor in addition to making it easy to get them out of the dish.

Once the polenta was done, I made a quick meat sauce using meatless meatballs, lots of garlic and crushed red pepper, and a can of tomatoes.

When dinner time rolled around, I topped slices of polenta with sauce and parmesan cheese. The sauce was spicy and the polenta was pillowy, soft goodness, perfect in every way.

I love discovering that some things are really easy to make. Do you have any recent easy discoveries?