Mămăligă is Romania's cooked Polenta dish. We traveled across the country last summer and I highly recommend a visit to Romania!
I tried Mămăligă all over the country in different regions and tweaked my recipe to the version I'm sharing here.
TL;DR
Polenta is omnipresent in Romania and fortunately, I'm a huge polenta fan. This recipe is for you if you love grits!
Lately, I have been preparing a lot more Romanian Mămăligă at home, besides my typical creamy Polenta side dish, which is an Italian Polenta version.
Italian Polenta is more liquid and Mămăligă is cooked down to a thick cake-like consistency. It can be a bit more liquid, but it's never as liquid as Italian Polenta.
Polenta doesn't need any prepping, and it cooks within 5 minutes straight. It's the most effortless side dish ever, and you just require 3 ingredients to prepare it.
A bag of polenta can last for weeks or even months, it's one of the most cost-effective ways to feed yourself and your family. Besides, polenta is a healthier food ingredient.
I use it as a side dish to prepare budget-friendly, tasty and nutritious meals, Further below I share some serving ideas.
Ingredient Notes
- Polenta — Regular plain yellow polenta is most commonly used in Romania but try this recipe with wholegrain polenta if you ever come across it.
- Water
- Salt
Process Overview
Step 1
Add polenta into a pan and pour in some water.
Heat up your pan and whisk it together before gradually adding the remaining water.
Step 2
Season with salt.
While the polenta is heating up, whisk continuously.
Step 3
Continue to whisk as it thickens until it starts to bubble (the whole process is quick, so don't walk away!)
Take the polenta immediately from the heat and serve up. (careful, the polenta jumps up)
📖 Recipe
3 Ingredient Mămăligă Recipe (Romanian Polenta)
Instructions
- Place the polenta into your pan and pour some water to that. Keep your pan on a medium heat setting and mix polenta and water.
- Gradually add water while stirring frequently as it heats up, and season with salt. Pour in all the water.
- Keep on stirring and control the heat, keep it on a lower heat setting if it's cooking too rapidly because the polenta needs to cook through.
- Simmer down the polenta and keep on stirring as it thickens. Take from the heat when it's bubbling, as it can jump out of the pan (don't burn your hand).
- Directly pour the Mămăligă into a serving plate or bowl as it's still hot and liquid. Serve up hot.
Notes
Nutrition
Tips
- Polenta will still appear partially liquid when it's done cooking, as it's hot. Once it cools down, it hardens.
- You can choose to make your Mămăligă hard so that you can cut it like a cake or corn bread, or prepare it the same consistency as mine. I have seen different variations across Romania.
- You can season it further with black pepper and oregano.
- Stick around and keep on whisking while the polenta is thickening because the process is almost instant. The polenta thicks within minutes and when it's done, it bubbles.
- Careful that the polenta bubbles don't jump out of the pan and burn your hand!
Serving
Mămăligă is great with most meals. You can add some cheese as a topping or serve it with fried eggs. I love preparing green onion fried eggs with Mămăligă for dinner.
In Romania, I have had Mămăligă with Sarmale (stuffed cabbage meat rolls), with cured pork salo cubes (bacon type), with a fried egg baked, with a tomato meat sauce, with a pork goulash.
So far, I have served Mămăligă at home with beef goulash, plenty of fried or poached eggs, spiced shrimp meals such as a shrimp fra diavolo and various tomato-based meals. Ground beef stuffed tomatoes and zucchini boats go well with Mămăligă!
Storing
I recommend preparing polenta Mămăligă fresh, as it doesn't take all too long to cook.
You can meal prep Mămăligă and store in heat-resistant containers to take to work. Mămăligă can be dense, so when it hardens, it's great as a take to work side dish.
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