Yes — you can make polenta from cornmeal. In many places, polenta is essentially a creamy porridge made from ground corn, so regular cornmeal works well. The only difference is texture: coarser cornmeal gives a more traditional polenta, while fine cornmeal cooks faster and becomes smoother.
Basic Polenta Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
4 cups water or broth
1 teaspoon salt
1–2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
Optional: nutritionalyeast, black pepper, herbs, cream
Instructions
Bring the liquid to a boil in a saucepan.
Add salt.
Slowly whisk in the cornmeal in a thin stream to prevent lumps.
Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring often, until thick and creamy:
fine cornmeal: about 15–20 minutes
medium/coarse cornmeal: about 30–45 minutes
Stir in nutritional yeast at the end.
Serve warm.
Tips
If your cornmeal is very coarse, it may need more liquid and longer cooking.
If it gets too thick, just add a little hot water or broth.
For richer flavor, use broth instead of water.
Optional ratio
A good starting ratio is:
1 part cornmeal to 4 parts liquid for creamy polenta
1 part cornmeal to 3 parts liquid for firmer polenta