Polenta

Polenta is a dish of boiled cornmeal that was historically made from other grains. The dish comes from Italy. It may be allowed to cool and solidify into a loaf that can be baked, fried, or grilled. The variety of cereal used is usually yellow maize, but often buckwheat, white maize, or mixtures thereof may be used. Coarse grinds make a firm, coarse polenta; finer grinds make a soft, creamy polenta. Polenta is a staple of Northern Italian (to a lesser extent, the Central Italian one, e.g. Tuscany), Swiss Italian, Southern French, Slovenian cuisine and, due to Italian settlers, the Latin American one. It is often mistaken for the Slovene-Croatian food named žganci. Its consumption was traditionally associated with lower classes, as in times past cornmeal mush was an essential food in their everyday nutrition. Etymology Polenta covered any hulled and crushed grain, especially barley-meal, and is derived from the for 'fine flour', which shares a root with , meaning 'dust'. History As it is known today, polenta derives from earlier forms of grain mush (known as or in Latin) that were commonly eaten since Roman times. Before the introduction of corn (maize) from America in the 16th century, polenta was made from starchy ingredients like farro, chestnut flour, millet, spelt, and chickpeas.