Fried polenta

Fried polenta came about as a creative way of using the polenta left over from the day before. We recommend buying a flour pack of at least 750 g, because you will need the extra flour for coating and frying. If you are planning on eating soft polentina, you can make more to save time with this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 500 g Mais Cinquantino corn flour
• 2 l water
• salt
• extra virgin olive oil 

Preparazione:

Put the water on to boil in a tall pot, either stainless steel or aluminium. When it starts to boil, add the salt. Start to pour the flour into the water (500 g for 2 litres of water) over a low heat or with the heat turned off, stirring quickly with a whisk to stop lumps forming. Continue to stir using a wooden spoon over a medium heat. After the first 5-10 minutes lower the heat and stir every 2-5 minutes. Cook for about an hour, adding hot water if necessary to keep the polenta nice and soft and creamy. When it’s ready, pour into a previously wetted rectangular mould (an oven dish is fine). Leave to cool and put into the fridge. Leave for at least 2-3 hours, or, even better, a day or so. The polenta should be properly cold before slicing and frying. Turn out the polenta onto a chopping board, then cut into sticks about 1.5-2 cm wide. Then cut into lengths of about 6-8 cm, to make chips that are all the same size, ready to be fried. Put a good amount of oil into a pan and heat to 180°C. Coat the polenta chips in the corn flour. As soon as the oil is hot, fry a few polenta chips at a time for about 8 minutes until they are nice and golden. Drain and put onto a serving plate lined with kitchen paper to soak up the excess oil. Finely chop the rosemary together with the coarse salt and sprinkle over the polenta chips to serve. This recipe makes about thirty chips, so five each for 6 people.  

DIFFICULTY: EASY
PREPARATION TIME: 60 MINUTES
PORTIONS: 30 STICKS