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Culinary Adventures in a College Kitchen

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Fried Polenta

Polenta is one of those foods I always buy and then forget to use. It gets pushed to the back of my pantry, only to resurface months later when there are only two days left until it expires.

Sometimes, I make a polenta casserole. Other times, polenta pancakes. This time, it was go big or go home.

It was time to fry.


I don't fry food very often but I found this recipe in a Giada cookbook (of course) and couldn't think of a better way to use my polenta. It is pretty simple, but makes a mess. I got oil everywhere.

Luckily, it wasn't anything my sponge and I couldn't handle!

Fried Polenta

Ingredients:

1 tube of prepared polenta
1/2 cup olive oil
parmesan cheese

Directions:

Pour the oil into a cast iron skillet and put on medium heat.

With a vegetable peeler, peel the outer layer of the polenta. Next, cut in half and then chop into rectangle sticks.

Add the polenta to the pan. Beware of splatter! Cook each side for 3 minutes. Again, when turning beware of splatter. I got a few war injuries will making this...


Remove to a plate covered wit paper towels. If you are like me and lack basic necessities like p. towels, a coffee filter works just fine ;) Finish it off with a sprinkle of parmesan! For dipping sauces, you could really do anything. I did barbecue sauce (my fridge is a bit lacking right now) but marinara sauce would probably be the best.


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7 comments:

  1. I love polenta - and anything that's fried automatically tastes amazing, no?? :)

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  2. I love crispy polenta, but I normally bake it or cook it in a nonstick skillet. I love the crispy outside and creamy inside!

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  3. I've never made polenta before... now I'm curious!

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  4. I tried to bake polenta one time from scratch, and it was awful. BUT it made amazing polenta fries - I do have a deep fryer, which I think is a must in every kitchen - it holds the temperature and nothing comes out greasy - you just reminded me that I need to make these again!

    http://mybizzykitchen.com/2009/12/31/polenta-fries/

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  5. This recipe looks delicious! A local Italian trattoria makes fried polenta and it is amazing. They must use heavy cream to cook it with because I can never get the flavor just right.

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  6. I don't know the first thing to do with polenta - i'm impressed!

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