Polenta with Fresh Corn

Another important step in my culinary education from using Zuni is to learn to cook polenta. I started with a search for the type of ground corn described by Judy Rogers, no luck, but found a lovely polenta from Italy (not cheap, but see the cute package in picture 2). I cooked it as instructed - soft simmer in a big heavy pot for an hour - but the next step was to put it in a double boiler, and my double boiler is too small. I used the improvisation suggest: I placed my largest pyrex pan in the oven, filled it with boiling water, and placed the pot into the water. I didn't like the idea of the plastic-wrapped lid, and so skipped it. I found that a 300Ëš oven made for a steamy environment, and wow - the polenta really did become very creamy - and no skin formed. I also like that you can hold the polenta like this for hours - so very flexible and forgiving.

I've not prepared polenta from scratch before, so I cannot compare, but this tasted really excellent. Surprisingly excellent.

No fresh corn, though, so I used frozen sweet corn (Costco - which is very tasty), and I also added some black pepper. Very comforting - good food for after a day of cross country skiing.