Polenta: The Day After

If you are like me, you always make far too much polenta.  The bag of polenta meal seems so small, and it can't possibly be enough to feed everyone, right? Ok, I'll add just a little bit more.

Wrong.

That little bag of polenta can feed 10 people.  Which means I still have enough polenta for an army after we are all stuffed silly.  But this isn't as tragic as it sounds because polenta is just as good, if not better, the next day!  Before the polenta cools off completely, smush it in some tupperware and stick it in the refrigerator.

The next morning, dump out your polenta and it should have solidified and hardened enough so that it has no problem staying together.  This is going to make an extraordinary breakfast! 

White Ostenga polenta left over from last night.

Slice it up.....

Coat a hot cast iron pan with some olive oil (or butter if you want to be very American),  and fry those slices of polenta until they are a golden brown.  It is easier to flip them if you cut them into pieces no more than 2 inches long.  Flip the polenta slices until crispy and golden on the other side.

Now, you have some choices.  You can eat your crispy polenta as-is, you can drizzle some honey (or maple syrup for an Americanized version), or if you want to be like an Italian,  eat it with jam.

I was really, really skeptical about the jam thing. Polenta and jam? No way, I thought.  But. BUT. I was wrong, I was so very very wrong.   Today I opened up my jar of jam made by the one and only Christine Ferber (apple, orange, and cardamom), and after eating a bite of the sweet, tart and slightly spicy jam on top of the crispy and flavorful polenta slices, I was floored, flabbergasted.  I don't know if it was the white ostenga polenta, the jam, or some magic of the combination, but that is what it was....magic.

Even thinking about it now, I'm drooling uncontrollably.  I've found my new favorite dish!