I love polenta - especially now that I've learned making it in a slow cooker is so easy.
I add a lot of seasoning, garlic, ginger, parsley, and I add soy sauce, about 2 Tablespoons per 1 cup of dried polenta - I've learned I like to salt "stews", etc. using soy sauce instead of regular salt.
I made it once adding "Italian seasoning" from my spice jar. Can't remember how much I used but I think it may have been 3-4 tablespoons. I also added 1/4 cup of chopped pimento green olives to give it a mediterranean taste. I would think that would go quite well with lasagna. Chopped/minced sun dried tomatoes should work great too.

I also add a couple tablespoons of nutritional yeast since that gives it a slight cheesy taste without the saturated fat.

I don't think you can go wrong. I even have been known to add dry sherry to the liquid in the slow cooker.

One of my favorite recipes is this Sausage and Mushroom Polenta "Lasagna" from Rachel Ray. DH said it didnÂt have enough meat, so I double the meat mixture (sausage, mushrooms, etc.) and I make this in a 3 qt round casserole  no need to oil the dish first IMO.

Makes great leftovers to heat all weekend for breakfast, lunch, snack, etc. :-)

When I plan on making grilled polenta, I often add flavorings of one kind or another before putting it in the fridge to set. Various cheeses, sun dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, herbs, cloves of roasted garlic, caramelized onions, scallions, minced bacon or pancetta, gosh, the list is endless. It depends on what I'm serving with it. I make sure to slice it with a very sharp knife so that the additions don't tear holes in the polenta squares. A mixture of the tomatoes, olives & scallions makes for a very pretty presentation.

I like soft polenta too, but generally serve that with some sort of topping, so often I just make that plain, with just the meal, water, butter, and maybe some salt & pepper.

The other night, we had stuffed mushrooms for dinner on a bed of soft polenta and one of the last three jars of my spicy tomato sauce (I need my tomatoes to ripen SOON!) into which I'd added a little ground beef. Yum.

Would someone please post a reliable method for making firm polenta? I make soft polenta occasionally and it is good, but the leftover soft polenta doesn't seem to firm up enough for other uses.

Jim

A rose by any other name . . . I suppose this is another dumb question by me,
but isn't "polenta" just another name for cornmeal mush? Perhaps with other spices or additions? My father used to make this when I was a child, I could not stand it served soft but dearly loved it fried with butter and maple syrup. Jim I have made it firm by just cooking slightly longer, or a little less water, pour into a loaf pan cover with plastic wrap, then refrigerated and slice to fry.
Lord help me if I stepped on anyones toes!
Red

I use parsley, chives and basil in my grilled polenta.

And Jim I wait until my polenta pulls away from the side of the pot when I'm stirring it - that's how I know it's done, then I make into patties and refrigerate it like the rest of the folks.

Maid o cliff, I've wondered about the same thing. My Mother, Native American, Scottish and English, would fix us fried mush with butter and syrup and my Grandma'am, who was from Austria, fixed polenta. Are they basically the same? Can't remember the polenta, but loved the mush.

Polenta and cornmeal mush are basically the same thing, except that usually, polenta is made from a coarser grind than cornmeal mush.

@Jim, what sands99 said, except that I don't shape it into patties. I like to smooth it into a mold of some sort. Then I slice it for frying or grilling with a very sharp knife so I get nice, smooth surfaces to maximize it's contact with the pan or grill. I like my grilled/fried polenta to end with a nice, uniformly crispy crust the better to set off the softer, creamy interior.

Gosh, I'm BBQing a Tri Tip tonight and was going to toss some potato wedges on the grill with it, but now y'all have got me wanting grilled polenta!