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[h=2]Polenta[/h]Mămăligă is a porridge made out of yellow maize flour, traditional in Romania, Moldova, and Western Ukraine. Historically a peasant food, it was often used as a substitute for bread or even as a staple food in the poor rural areas. However, in the last decades it has emerged as an upscale dish available in the finest restaurants.

Polenta is porridge which means it's wet.. Corn meal is dry.. not sure how you would make cornbread out of Polenta..
 
Ah. Now I see. For you Brits out there...cornmeal and polenta aren't interchangeable! That is, don't buy polenta that is already cooked and formed (sometimes comes in a tube). That won't work. Trust me on this, k? LOL
 
Cornmeal and water cooked together make cornmeal mush. It's pretty bland stuff unless poured into a loaf pan and refrigerated, overnight, turned out and sliced the next morning, fried in bacon fat or butter and served with syrup.

Grits are a different story. The corn is ground but not to the fine texture that makes it cornmeal, and when corn is made into grits, it's from white field corn. Grits, at least in the South, are made from hominy and cooked pretty much the same as corn grits.

When cornmeal is made into polenta, it can be plain but usually isn't. Polenta is usually made with a broth and/or milk/cream, cheese (Parmesan and mozzarella), basil and parsley, and sometimes baked in the oven although it can be poured onto a deep platter right from the pan it's cooked in.
 
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