What Is Polenta? How NYC Italian Menus Serve It

Polenta is cornmeal boiled in lightly salted water into a thick porridge, a staple of northern Italy that is served soft, or left to set, cut into slices and fried. In New York, Bacaro and Babbo list it as a $12 to $15 side, Locanda Verde sets crispy polenta under short rib, Trattoria Dell’Arte puts lamb osso bucco on it, and Don Angie puts it in the name of a pasta. Dishes and prices below come from each restaurant’s own menu, checked in October 2026, and the definition follows Treccani’s online dictionary.

What is polenta made of?

Polenta is made from corn flour or meal cooked in lightly salted water in a pot and stirred continuously until it thickens. Treccani, the Italian encyclopedia institute, describes it as a rustic dish of exactly that kind, which is why it is also called polenta gialla, “yellow polenta.” The same entry says it sets firm enough to cut into slices, is widespread in Lombardy, Veneto and Friuli, and takes its name from Latin polenta, meaning barley meal.

None of the menus read for this piece says how its kitchen makes polenta or which meal it uses. The only descriptor of the grain any of them prints is “organic,” at Locanda Verde. Polenta belongs to the north, and which part of Italy a menu is cooking from lays out other tells, such as butter and filled pasta.

What dish is polenta: soft or fried?

Polenta works as a side or a base, the starchy plate under braised meat, mushrooms or shellfish, and Treccani also lists it as a first course or a one-dish meal. What changes the dish is whether it is served soft or left to set.

• Soft. Served as a porridge. Treccani lists a very soft regional version, polentina, dressed with butter and cheese.
• Set and fried. Left to set, polenta can be cut into slices, and Treccani lists “polenta fritta” as slices cut from set polenta. Menus say “crispy,” “fried” or “polenta cake.”

How is polenta served in Italian restaurants in NYC?

Six Manhattan menus were read because each prints polenta today, and together they cover a side, a crispy accompaniment, a base for shrimp and braised meat, a main plate and a pasta component. Menus outside this set may handle polenta differently. Every figure below is as printed in October 2026, and prices change.

Soft polenta as a side: Babbo and Bacaro

Babbo’s Contorni section, the Italian heading for sides served with the main course, holds two plates: broccolini with garlic and lemon, and polenta with mascarpone and Parmigiano, both $15. Bacaro’s Contorno section lists four sides at $12 each: crispy smashed potatoes, sautéed green beans, sautéed broccoli rabe and polenta. At both restaurants polenta costs exactly what the other sides cost. Neither menu describes the texture, and Babbo lists only mascarpone and Parmigiano as additions. How that heading works is covered in what contorni are on an Italian menu.

Crispy polenta: Locanda Verde and Bacaro

Locanda Verde prints “crispy polenta” inside two meat dishes rather than as a side: the Short Rib Piedmontese at $78 on the Tribeca dinner menu, and the Grass-Fed Hanger Steak at $59 on the lunch menu. The menu does not say how it is made, but “crispy” suggests set polenta that was cut and cooked until the edges crisp. Bacaro is the only one of the six to say fried outright: its antipasto list has a crab salad with “fried polenta cake & arugula” at $18.

Polenta as the base: Trattoria Dell’Arte, Bacaro and Scarpetta

Trattoria Dell’Arte, which describes itself as across from Carnegie Hall, serves shrimp scampi on pecorino polenta at $37 and Lamb Osso Bucco on pecorino polenta at $48 on its dinner menu. Classic osso buco alla Milanese comes with saffron risotto, as what makes osso buco Milanese explains, so lamb on polenta is a different pairing.

Bacaro lists garlic shrimp over polenta, with garlic and tomatoes, at $27, and beef stew with celery, carrot and onion over polenta at $32. Counting its side and its fried cake, that is polenta on four lines of one dinner menu, the most on any single menu among the six. Scarpetta makes polenta the plate itself: Creamy Polenta with a truffled mushroom fricassée at $29 in the primi of its dinner menu, the only polenta line on these menus that uses the word creamy.

Polenta in a pasta’s name: Don Angie

Don Angie’s Whole Roasted Lobster for Two comes with smoked vodka sauce, “Spicy Polenta Tortelli” and lobster polpette, at $135 for the whole dish, not for the tortelli. The page gives no further description, so whether polenta is the filling is a question for the restaurant. An asterisk marks the lobster as available at dinner only.

Is polenta the same as grits?

The menus read here do not say. Locanda Verde’s Tribeca brunch menu is the only one that prints the word grits: a $32 dish called “Scampi and Grits,” whose ingredient line reads “organic polenta & sunny side up eggs.” At least one New York kitchen, then, uses polenta for a dish it calls grits. Treccani defines polenta as corn flour cooked in lightly salted water, and none of the pages read for this piece defines grits, so any difference in milling or cooking is something to ask the restaurant.

Before you order: reading the word beside polenta

• No adjective, in a sides section. Priced like the other sides: $15 at Babbo, $12 at Bacaro.
• “Creamy,” as a plate. At Scarpetta, Creamy Polenta is a $29 dish in the primi, not a side.
• “Crispy” or “fried.” Likely set polenta, cut and cooked until the edges crisp. At Locanda Verde it arrives inside a $59 or $78 meat dish, not as a separate order.
• “Over” or “with” a protein. Polenta is the base of the plate, as with Bacaro’s shrimp ($27) and beef stew ($32) and Trattoria Dell’Arte’s shrimp ($37) and lamb ($48).
• Part of a pasta’s name. At Don Angie, the menu lists polenta tortelli only as a component of the lobster dish.
• Allergies. None of the polenta lines on these six menus carries an allergen or gluten note, so confirm with the restaurant first if you have celiac disease or an allergy.

Frequently asked questions

What is polenta made of?

Polenta is made of corn flour or meal cooked in lightly salted water and stirred continuously until it thickens into a porridge. Italy’s Treccani dictionary calls it polenta gialla, “yellow polenta,” for that reason. None of the six NYC menus read here says how its polenta is milled, and Locanda Verde’s only descriptor is “organic.”

What dish is polenta?

Polenta is a northern Italian porridge of boiled cornmeal, served as a side, a base or a main plate. It can be served soft, or left to set, cut and fried. On NYC menus it ranges from a $12 side at Bacaro to the $29 Creamy Polenta plate at Scarpetta.

Is polenta the same as grits?

The restaurant menus read for this piece do not settle it. Locanda Verde’s Tribeca brunch menu lists a $32 dish called “Scampi and Grits” with “organic polenta” as its ingredient, as of October 2026, so that kitchen uses polenta for a dish it calls grits. Treccani defines polenta as corn flour cooked in lightly salted water.

How is polenta served in Italian restaurants?

Italian restaurants in New York serve polenta as a side, as crispy polenta under meat, as a base for shrimp and braised lamb, and as tortelli beside lobster. Babbo prices its polenta side at $15 and Bacaro at $12, while Trattoria Dell’Arte puts pecorino polenta under shrimp scampi at $37 and lamb osso bucco at $48.