Polenta is a dish of boiled cornmeal that was historically made from other grains

Food 101

The dish comes from Italy. It may be allowed to cool and solidify into a loaf that can be baked, fried, or grilled. The variety of cereal used is usually yellow maize, but often buckwheat, white maize, or mixtures thereof may be used. Coarse grinds make a firm, coarse polenta; finer grinds make a soft, creamy polenta.[4] Polenta is a staple of Northern Italian (to a lesser extent, the Central Italian one, e.g. Tuscany), Swiss, Southern French, Slovenian cuisine and, due to Italian settlers, the Latin American one. It is often mistaken for the Slovene-Croatian food named žganci.[1] Its consumption was traditionally associated with lower classes, as in times past cornmeal mush was an essential food in their everyday nutrition