Polenta with Cheese & Sour Cream
Mămăligă is the unwritten bread of Romanian cooking — a simple cornmeal porridge that fed the countryside from one end of the country to the other for centuries. Traditionally it is made in a cast-iron cauldron, stirred with a wooden stick. In its version with cheese and sour cream it becomes a dish in its own right: the warm, dense cornmeal catches salty sheep cheese and cool sour cream between its layers, a contrast of temperatures and flavours that lifts it well above the status of a side. It is eaten equally at a plain lunch and at the shepherd table — where, kneaded with cheese and charred over embers, it becomes bulz — and a fried egg on top turns it into a full meal. Gluten-free by nature, it is one of the most honest recipes our kitchen has.
Cut with a thread
Turned onto a board, sliced with string not a knife
Naturally gluten-free
Just cornmeal, water and salt
Layered with cheese
Salty sheep cheese and cool sour cream
Ingredients 4 servings
- 250g coarse cornmeal (polenta)
- 1 litre water
- 1 tsp salt
- 30g butter
- 200g brânză de burduf or salty sheep cheese, crumbled
- 200g full-fat sour cream
- 4 eggs (optional, fried, to serve)
How to make it
- 1Bring the water and salt to a boil in a cast-iron cauldron or heavy-bottomed pot.
- 2Pour in the cornmeal in a thin stream, whisking briskly so no lumps form.
- 3Lower the heat and cook for 15–20 minutes, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until the polenta pulls away from the sides of the pot and turns dense.
- 4Take it off the heat, stir in the butter and let it rest for two minutes.
- 5Serve it layered, alternating hot polenta with crumbled cheese and cold sour cream; for a full meal, top it with a fried egg with a soft yolk.
Nutritional info
per serving (~350 g)
Estimated nutritional values.
Pairs perfectly with
