Polenta is an Italian staple that has gone from peasant food to high-end in recent years.

It is a dish made from coarsely ground yellow cornmeal -- which is sometimes sold as "polenta" in supermarkets -- that is boiled with water, stock or milk. Polenta must be slow-cooked and requires constant stirring to prevent lumps from forming -- although instant varieties are popular with home cooks.

You can eat polenta like a side dish in hot porridge form or cool it down, cut it into strips or squares or roll it into balls and fry it in olive oil or grill it. You can enrich polenta with cheese and top fried polenta squares with roasted or sautéed vegetables. The Italians traditionally use kitchen string held taught between two hands to slice cooled polenta, but a wet knife will also work.

Cornmeal porridge is popular in many cuisines of the world, including America -- where it was once called cornmeal mush and a staple food of early settlers. White cornmeal porridge -- called grits -- is a classic dish in the American South.