My husband and I are too resourceful to throw leftovers away; I froze portions of the polenta, and we've been taking these "polenta bricks" out of the freezer any time we need a quick dinner.
I serve the polenta with whatever sauce I might have on hand... It helps to make big batches of sauces, as they can keep quite well too. My favorite is a simple one of chicken stock, lemon, and wine, boiled down some into a flavorful sauce, with a bit of garlic added near the end.
I would not have known just how well polenta freezes, if we hadn't had several pans of it leftover, but it really does! I highly recommend it, for anyone looking for ways to save time in the kitchen. Make a huge batch, and freeze some. I made mine with organic, whole grain, medium-fine corn meal
(available in the bulk section at Raleys and other larger grocery stores), so I know it's plenty nutritious too. (I wanted to avoid the degerminated kind.)And for those of us on a budget (like me, trying to maximize our dollar value when we were buying 25 lb. for the women's dinner), "corn meal" is the way to go. I did a taste test, making several batches of polenta ahead of time, trying to determine if the "polenta" corn meal was any better than the product just called "corn meal". There was no difference in taste! Just a big difference in price- most of the polenta was five times more costly than its corn meal cousin.
If you try the recipe, you may find slight variations in how thick or thin your polenta turns out, depending on whether you use fine or coarser corn meal, and how much water you decide to add. For the big event, we added the full amount of water, so ours was softer- it's good either way though! I hope you try it!
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