Corn isn't the perfect foodstuff by any means, but it is indispensible. Just thinking about it makes me patriotic. I can imagine Italians and French and English just sitting around eating dirt because they don't know what's what and then some dudes on a boat say 'Hey we got this from the savages' and holding up a bunch of corn and then immediately food is invented and everybody wants to go to America because that is where the action is.
I grew up with the American South staples at the table, and cornmeal is one of those things that just belongs in the pantry. However I rarely broke my cornmeal out to give it its rightful place on the dinner table, mostly I used it to dust pizza stones and provide dust protection for the boxes of cornbread mix behind it. This is a situation that had to be remedied, and what better way to start an Adventure in Corn than with the most basic cornmeal dish one can prepare: polenta.
Polenta is the classy Italian Restaurant name for boiled cornmeal. You may see it at that fancy eatery where it accompanies a $30 short rib medly, and that is because restaurants really think it is hilarious when people pay $30 for a dish where the side cost about $0.15 to prepare enough for 50 people. This is why Mario Batali is so happy and snide looking.
Making polenta isn't as simple as cooking pasta, though. You gotta stir the cornmeal into cold water first before adding the boiling water so it doesn't get all clumpy and then basically heat the stuff for half an hour, stirring the entire time until your muscles feel as though you have been throwing baseballs all day. Basically all the water will boil out and the cornmush will burp and erupt frequently like a landscape of scalding quicksand gyesers. The substance will start creeping up your wooden spoon and you will think it is an alien symbiote and you will turn into Corn Spiderman but really the polenta just wants to get to know you a little. Be friendly with it but don't hesitate to let it know you will eat it if it acts a fool.
In the end the mush is thick as very thick goo. This is when you realize boiled cornmush will be gross by itself and you add some butter and parmesean cheese or whatever. Maybe a little hot sauce would be a good idea too.
The thing about polenta is it is neither a liquid nor a solid, and foods like that are gross if you think about them. So eat it while it is hot before it tries to turn into a pasta brick. Put some tomato sauce on it, people will think that is ok.
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