Polenta with Mushrooms

We haven't made polenta before, so this ended up being an adventure.  Most recipes indicate hardware including a heavy-bottomed pot, and we do not have one... although we do have a cast-iron skillet and a flimsy pot.  I placed the pot on the skillet and hoped for the best, and it seemed to work well, although it took the water a good amount of time to boil.

I made a mushroom saute to put on top, using a couple cloves of garlic, a little dried basil, a healthy dose of olive oil, and topped with smoked salt.  I've seen polenta topped with everything from meat sauce to a dab of butter.  The topping is entirely up to you.  If we had them around, a mix of wild mushrooms (morels, porcinis, lobster mushrooms) would have been excellent.  As it was, the button mushrooms served their purpose and were great. 

The recipe itself is easy.  I made extra to keep in the refrigerator so that we could bake it and top with Parmesan at a later date, and I strongly recommend you do the same, if only because it can be all too easy to burn the polenta if you are using a small amount.

Ingredients: 

1 + 2/3 cups polenta (NOT instant)

7 cups water

1 tbsp Kosher salt

Bring the water to a boil with the salt.  Add the polenta slowly, while whisking - you want to avoid clumps.  If you want, you could mix a small amount of water in with the polenta before doing this in order to prevent it from seizing in the water.  Stir continuously for 35-40 minutes, using a wooden spoon.  Keep the water boiling.  

I added about 1/2 of a cup of grated mozzarella at the end and stirred until it melted into it. 

Apologies for the photos this time -- we made dinner after the sun went down and it ended up being a little on the hard side to get good shots.  :)