Sweetcorn polenta from Plenty (page 266) by Yotam Ottolenghi

View complete recipe

Ingredients

corn
dried oregano
Show all ingredients...

Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

Beebopalulu on December 02, 2019

Ended up being really good, but recipe needed some finessing - mine was much too watery to start out.
EmilyR on September 06, 2019

I made half of the corn and a full portion of the eggplant / tomato mix. Instead of dealing with massive amounts of oil I followed another recipe I have and baked the eggplant with a mix of a couple Tbsp. olive oil, salt and pepper at 425 for about 20 minutes. I did add an extra splash to the tomato mixture, though. As for the polenta, I mixed it up in a vitamix after cooking it and then added the majority of the cooking water back (I didn't read the notes)... and then simmered it for way longer than stated until it thickened up. The feta was excellent - as it always is with corn. Everything I used was fresh from the garden or market so the flavors were wonderful.
excurvatus on August 16, 2019

This was incredibly satisfying but i have slightly different feedback from the rest of the community here. I cooked the eggplants in about 1/2 cup (instead of 2/3) oil, maybe next time I'd roast in the oven with a few tbsp oil instead. The sauce was good! For the polenta, I followed the instructions and added the corn paste back to the cooking pan with the corn water, I didn't mind the consistency. It was somewhere between soup and traditional polenta. It was good, but it felt like a lot of work. I didn't find it too sweet, as others have, it seemed like a great way to revel in the flavours of corn.
anya_sf on August 23, 2018

The polenta never gets as thick as mashed potatoes, but was still OK with a looser texture. However, as others have said, today's fresh corn is too sweet for this recipe. I added lemon juice, but even that and the feta cheese were not enough to balance the sweetness. I used maybe half the oil for the eggplant, so then didn't have to drain any. The eggplant went well with it; I made it a day ahead and reheated it, which I think helped meld the flavors, although it wasn't exciting on its own. We liked this dish OK, but did not love it.
ldtrieb on June 30, 2017

Way too sweet for me, my husband had seconds. Corn is just not Corny anymore . I don't know why I even made it as I don't like corn soup. I think I'll make pancakes with the leftovers. The eggplant was good but all that fresh oregano is like perfume. I know this is negative but I love 99% of Ottolenghi's recipes, it's me not him!
Jane on June 16, 2017

I have made the polenta before but not with the eggplant. It is much better with both. As we all know from the notes, don't add the cooking water to the polenta otherwise it is too loose. I liked the eggplant sauce. 100ml of oil was enough to fry it.
raybun on April 25, 2017

I just made the polenta part of this recipe. It was very well received by the, suspicious at first, family. The feta gave it a nice tang and it paired perfectly with his cod cakes in tomato sauce from Jerusalem.
Rinshin on September 09, 2016

I did not particularly care for this. The corn tasted very sweet when processed to a mash. I found that strange since I love the taste of fresh corn. Perhaps the corn found out here in California is sweeter and more tender than in Europe and other areas. The texture was like eating instant oatmeal. I did not add back the water to the corn as that would have made this mash much more loose. I much prefer regular grits to this. The eggplant mixture was ok but nothing too exciting either. I should have added some kind of acid ie vinegar or citrus to perk up the eggplant mixture.
dinnermints on September 05, 2016

Nice take on polenta. Also thanks to Breadcrumbs for nixing pan water and bundt pan tip, and to ncollyer - I also roasted the eggplant, which I drizzled with a couple of tablespoons of oil. I was surprised how flavorful the sauce was for how little time it took to put together. I made a separate sauce with roasted mushrooms instead of tomato for my husband, and that was also delicious.
WFPLCleanEating on August 25, 2016

I only made the polenta part of the recipe and enjoyed it a lot. I was glad I had read Breadcrumbs note about not adding the water in the pan. The British version of the recipe was less ambiguous "Now return the corn paste to the pan with the cooking liquid". I didn't because my corn paste was already very loose - if I had added the water it would have been soup. I plan to make this again with the eggplant sauce. - Jane
Nancy402 on August 16, 2014

Excellent dinner for a cool summer evening, with a crisp green salad. I roasted the eggplant at 400 degrees for 15 minutes just tossed in a olive to coat and then continued with the sauce directions . It was delicious. Did not miss all of the oil. Akso used half the feta, which was enough of a counterpoint to the sweet corn.
cilantrolime on July 09, 2014

I cheated and served the eggplant sauce over grits. Very easy, and it was quite good! Will make again.
Bloominanglophile on September 12, 2013

Part 2 to my original posting: I found that 4 ears of corn served my family of 3 quite nicely. To serve 4 I would definitely use the full 6 ears of corn, and increase the butter by a tablespoon. I also didn't use the full amount of feta (maybe 5 oz.) which worked out just fine, so I would increase it to the original 7 oz. (if serving 4). I used 4 large Japanese eggplants, and the resulting sauce was enough to top 4 servings of polenta.
Bloominanglophile on September 12, 2013

Ok, this was my first time to "Ottoleng", as it were. I was very pleased with this dish, and found it quite doable for a weeknight. Thanks to Breadcrumbs for the heads-up not to add the pureed corn back to the water in the pan! Even then, this took awhile to cook down and is the most time-consuming step of this dish. I found that 4 good-sized ears of corn gave me 1 1/4 lbs. of kernels. I also "milked" the cobs with the back of the knife and added that to the pureed corn (don't add the milkings to the water to cook the kernels). I also used Japanese eggplant, which doesn't need to be peeled as the skin cooks down nice and soft. I used the full amount of oil, which the eggplant absorbed, but then surprisingly released as it cooked down (drained off almost half of the oil used)--I didn't know eggplant would do that! I served this with the Parsley, Radish and Celery Salad with Capers from Simon Hopkinson's The Vegetarian Option.
Breadcrumbs on August 26, 2013

Part 2 of 2: Nevertheless, this was bar none, the most delicious corn we've ever eaten. The sweetness was remarkable and the salty bursts of feta added a perfect balance and, a welcome textural element. One other thing I wanted to mention was that my 6 ears of corn yielded 2.5 lbs of corn. In the recipe YO notes "you want to have 1.25 lbs. Also worth mentioning, this was the first time I used the Fine Cooking Bundt pan method (link below) for removing kernels from the corn cobs and it worked like a charm! I further simplified my clean up by lining my Bundt pan with a compost bag so the pan didn't even get dirty. http://www.finecooking.com/videos/how... Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/781960#8286138
Breadcrumbs on August 26, 2013

Part 1 of 2: Although I didn't have time to make the eggplant sauce and, I had an execution issue with the corn, this was still the best tasting corn dish we've ever eaten! My Polenta looks nothing the polenta pictured in the book. The texture of my polenta was ridiculously loose, more like a thick soup. I know where I erred. At the point where you remove the corn from the pan with a slotted spoon, the book instructs you to reserve the cooking liquid. The book then instructs you to add some of the water into the food processor bowl if the corn mixture becomes too dry during processing. None was needed; my mixture was loose. The book says to add the processed corn back into the "water pan". I debated whether to pour out the water but I figured if YO wanted you to put it into a "dry pan" he'd have said so. Why mention the water if you'd poured it out...right? Wrong! I stirred, I simmered, I raised the heat and stirred some more but try as I might, I had corn soup vs polenta. Con’t.
okcook on August 14, 2013

The sauce is delicious. I was sceptical about flavour development with such a short cooking time but cooking the tomato paste for two minutes with the eggplant over fairly high heat really made the flavour robust.
Emily Hope on July 30, 2011

This is really great. A bit of work, as all of their recipes are, but worth it. The salty-sweet polenta with feta contrasts well with the acidic notes in the sauce. My only issue is that it could use more textural contrast--next time I might cook down the tomato sauce separately and add the sauteed eggplant toward the end of cooking time. Definitely company-worthy.
bgood on July 12, 2011

This is a 2 step recipe but the eggplant sauce makes it perfect. Good quality feta is not out of place here.