One of my favorite dishes, which I often order when dining out, is creamy polenta with some type of braised meat. I’ve never attempted anything like this at home, but when I saw the directions on the Delallo Instant Polenta box (boil water and stir in polenta), I thought I could at least handle the polenta. Unfortunately, it did not come out as I’d hoped.
After following the directions on the box, the polenta was lumpy and nothing like the creamy kind I’ve had in restaurants. I tasted it, hoping it would be good despite the texture, and was disappointed again by how bland it was. I reread the box, saw that it said salt to taste and serve with butter and cheese, so I started with some salt. This helped, but the polenta still didn’t taste quite right. I added a lot more salt and pepper, and started stirring in butter a little at a time. The butter made it taste much more like restaurant polenta (no surprise) but at this point the texture was worse because I’d let it sit too long. I turned the stove back on, stirred in a little milk, and topped it with some parmesan cheese. I ate it with roast chicken (done with olive oil and rotisserie spice in an oven bag) and while it was a slight improvement over the instant rice I usually eat with chicken, it was definitely did not live up to my expectations.
Since I’ve never cooked polenta before, I love to get some opinions on this one. Is good instant polenta just not possible or did I do something wrong?
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