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Soft Polenta with Easy Toppings (Fast & Slow)
Thick, creamy polenta is a breeze to make in a pressure cooker, as the cooking is completely hands-off. This polenta is not enriched with butter or cheese, so the sweetness of the corn is front and center. A simple topping (recipes below; each makes enough for four servings) can turn a bowl of plain polenta into a light meal or a delicious first course. Polenta also is a perfect accompaniment to many stews and braises, such as Tuscan Beef and Black Pepper Stew, or serve it in place of pasta with Short Rib Ragu.
4
Servings
Tip
Don't use fine yellow cornmeal, which cooks up pasty and gluey. For the best flavor and texture, use coarse stoneground cornmeal; steel-ground cornmeal has less flavor. We especially liked Bob's Red Mill Organic Polenta Corn Grits (cornmeal).
FAST: 1¼ hours
Slow: 5½ to 6½ hours
10 minutes active
Ingredients
-
1½
cups coarse stoneground yellow cornmeal
-
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
Directions
-
01In a 6-quart Instant Pot, whisk together 7½ cups water, the polenta and 2½ teaspoons salt.
Reviews
November 11, 2024
Forever to Pressurize
I followed recipe exactly in 8qt sauce pan. Took forever to pressurize. It burnt to the bottom but the polenta on top was SO GOOD!!
November 18, 2023
Epic Fail
I followed the recipe as listed and got soup. After releasing the pressure 20 minutes after 20 minutes of cooking the result was totally liquid! This is the problem with volume measurements. I am guessing that the 1.5 cups of cornmeal I used wasn't the same mass as the recipe's 1.5 cups. Can you please list major ingredients by weight?
November 17, 2023
Doesn’t work in instant pot
I have an 8 quart and used same recipe. I tried according to recipe and the result was “burned food.” I shortened the time to 7 min. Same results.
March 12, 2024
Fantastic Polenta!
Love this recipe and have made it over and over again without fail. Key is to use Bob's Red Mill Course Ground Polenta (not cornmeal) and make sure you whisk it into the cold water initially, again after cooking and again after resting and before serving.
This is the first time I've ever gotten a "burn" error on my Instant Pot. The recipe couldn't be simpler, so I'm baffled about what went wrong. I scraped the caked-on cornmeal from the bottom of the pot, cleaned it, and tried again, and the same thing happened. Used Bob's Red Mill Coarse Stone-ground Cornmeal. Any idea why this happened? I'm loathe to try again without knowing what to change to get a different result.
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Easy toppings aren't listed.