Rosemary Polenta, courtesy of Ina Garten

Please note: This is not my polenta recipe, but it makes very very good polenta, and I had a request to share it, so here it is!

Ingredients

• 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary leaves (*Note here: I've never used the rosemary, but go ahead if you want to.)
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups cornmeal
• 1/2 cup good grated Parmesan
• Flour, olive oil, and butter, for frying

Directions

Heat the butter and olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, rosemary, salt, and pepper and saute for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock, half-and-half, and milk and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly sprinkle the cornmeal into the hot milk while stirring constantly with a whisk. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for a few minutes, until thickened and bubbly. Off the heat, stir in the Parmesan.

***(Note: Here, you can go ahead and serve it immediately. Or you can follow the rest of the recipe and serve it as skillet fried patties. In my experience, it's delicious after being skillet fried, but it also falls apart.)

Pour into a 9 by 13 by 2-inch pan, smooth the top, and refrigerate until firm and cold.

Cut the chilled polenta into 12 squares, as you would with brownies. Lift each one out with a spatula and cut diagonally into triangles. Dust each triangle lightly in flour. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large saute pan and cook the triangles in batches over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes, turning once, until browned on the outside and heated inside. Add more butter and oil, as needed. Serve immediately.