Creamy Fresh Corn and Mascarpone Cheese Polenta

I have a few very distinct memories of my sister and I when we were little being forced to eat polenta. It was never the delicious cream-of-wheat-ish stuff I have these days, it was somewhat hard rounds of inedible sick that I assume came from something like this:

Appetizing, eh? When I asked her about it today, her response was, "I thought that was one of the worst foods ever thought up ever."
Our mom was a fairly decent cook, not extremely inventive but she could cook. It was always horrifying when we heard she was making polenta because we knew we wouldn't be allowed to leave the table until we ate some. It was so dry and rubbery that it was vomit-inducing to chew up so we always swallowed our mandatory bites whole. I remember whining a lot, "how many morrrrrrrrrrrrre?"

It was just last year that I rediscovered polenta, finally getting over my childhood anger and trying it again. There is a restaurant in town that makes a fabulous baked polenta appetizer and after spending a bit of money ordering that several times, I decided to try it on my own.

I knew I could make it on the stove but heard it took 45 minutes and when you've cut your gym session short because you've been thinking about food the whole time because all they play on their TVs is The Food Network and your stomach will eat itself if you don't eat soon, who has time to stand for 45 minutes stirring? Not I. I don't even like to make it all that much when I do have the time because it needs such constant babying.

However, I have discovered the secret. My good friend Karen gets all the credit for introducing this to me, but she gave me permission to post it because she's not quite internet savvy. She and her husband had a few friends over for an impromptu BBQ potluck last weekend and she made this along with Grilled Mustard Chicken and I've been dreaming of polenta ever since.

While I've bought tube polenta and sliced and fried it, I never knew you could mush it up in a pan with some kind of thickener (butter, milk, cheese) and make it taste exactly like the time consuming corn meal. Karen proved me wrong, and in the most delicious way possible. Enjoy the heck out of this, I made it last night for two friends and we definitely enjoyed it all the way through the end of the pot. I've omitted the sugar the original called for, as well as half the mascarpone cheese, and used tube polenta rather than corn meal.

Creamy Fresh Corn and Mascarpone Cheese Polenta
1 tube original polenta
dash of salt and pepper
1 ear of freshly pre-cooked corn
about 1/4 mascarpone cheese

Throw an ear of corn still in the husk and wrapped in foil onto the BBQ. I've heard you can forgo the foil if you just soak the corn in water for 10 minutes, but I don't like soaking veggies in water as they get very watery. So, foil. Cook for about 15 minutes on medium-high heat and then flip over for another 15. Remove foil and husks, and cut kernels off the cob. Set aside.

Cut tube polenta into cubes and throw in a pot over medium heat. Mash with some kind of instrument (I used a wooden potato masher/pestle), add salt and pepper, mascarpone cheese, and corn. Cook until everything looks blended and creamy and remove from heat. The nice thing about tube polenta is it's precooked, so all you're basically doing is warming it. 

This served three, though reluctantly. We all wanted a lot more than we got, so I'd say this serves two and you should double the recipe if you add more people. We ate the polenta with some grilled Aidells Cajun Style Andouille sausages and a simple spinach salad with pomegranate dressing. FanTAStic, not too filling, and easy.

Bon Appetit...just not wheat!