The California Cook: Taking the work out of polenta

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If you think making polenta is synonymous with slaving over a hot stove, then Times Food Editor and California Cook columnist Russ Parsons would like to disabuse you of that notion:

You can make a really good polenta with no more effort than it would take to bake a boxed cake.

Don’t believe me? I don’t blame you. I went for years trying different kinds of shortcuts for making polenta and rejecting every one. Most sacrifice flavor for ease. I’ve tried at least a half-dozen of them -- in a covered pan, in a double-boiler, even in the microwave -- and even the best didn’t come close to the deep, toasted corn flavor of a true long-stirred polenta.

As a result, my family and I ate polenta only on those rare occasions when my ambition matched my mood -- in other words, only a couple of times a year.

But now I serve polenta any time I feel like it. And these gray, rainy days I’m feeling like it a lot. Here’s how easy preparing polenta can be: Pour water into a wide, deep pot; stir in polenta; bake; stir; bake; stir; done.

And here’s the really crazy thing: It works!

Read the rest of this week’s California Cook column here.