D’Avolio Autumn Squash Polenta

Autumn Squash Polenta is an enticing combination of sweet butternut squash and creamy, rich polenta accented with a combination of herbs and spices. In Italian cooking, polenta is typically prepared as a mush or porridge. Polenta is a hearty, comforting, extremely versatile Italian-style accompaniment to a wide variety of dishes. What’s more, since it is simply made from finely ground corn, it is naturally gluten-free.

In Italy, corn is most often served as polenta, a staple dish in Northern Italy. Polenta can carry many different flavors, and as such, offers endless options for variation. It can also be made with either white or yellow corn, and can be ground coarse or fine.
Polenta with ragu is traditionally served directly on wooden planks, rather than in a bowl or on a plate, harkening back to a time before dishware, when polenta was poured directly onto a well-scrubbed tabletop. This ancient rustic style is called “polenta spianatora,” or “polenta spread flat.” Putting the polenta in the center of the table meant that those with the longest arms (the adults) reached the best parts of the ragu first. The wooden plank presentation style is still used almost exclusively throughout Italy.

Polenta is a nutritious dish, offering an excellent source of iron and a good source of vitamin A and potassium, along with dietary fiber.

Ingredients
Corn meal, Butternut squash, Maple sugar, Parmesan cheese buds (Maltodextrin, whey solids, natural parmesan cheese flavor, salt), Salt, Contains 2% or less of pumpkin, Spices, Leek, Contains Milk