and
tvorog (szalonna és túró) or with jam. Traditionally,
mămăligă is cooked by boiling water, salt and cornmeal in a special-shaped
cast iron pot called
ceaun or
tuci. When cooked peasant-style and used as a bread substitute,
mămăligă is supposed to be much thicker than the regular Italian polenta to the point that it can be cut in slices, like bread. When cooked for other purposes,
mămăligă can be much softer, sometimes almost to the consistency of
porridge. Because
mămăligă sticks to metal surfaces, a piece of sewing thread is used to cut it into slices instead of a knife; it can then be eaten by holding it with the hand, just like bread.
Mămăligă is a versatile food: various recipes of
mămăligă-based dishes may include milk,
butter, various types of cheese, eggs, sausages (usually fried, grilled or oven-roasted), bacon, mushrooms, ham, fish etc.
Mămăligă is a fat-free, cholesterol-free, high-fiber food. It can be used as a healthy alternative to more refined carbohydrates such as white bread, pasta, or hulled rice.
Serving mămăligă Mămăligă is often served with sour cream and cheese on the side (
mămăligă cu brânză și smântână) or crushed in a bowl of hot milk (
mămăligă cu lapte). Sometimes slices of
mămăligă are pan-fried in oil or in lard, the result being a sort of
corn pone. The traditional Moldavian meal is often served with meat, usually pork or fried fish, and
mujdei, a garlic-and-oil sauce. Harder boiled mamaliga is traditionally cut with a string, so it would not stick on a knife.
Similar dishes Since
mămăligă can be used as an alternative for bread in many
Romanian and
Moldovan dishes, there are quite a few which are either based on
mămăligă, or include it as an ingredient or side dish. Arguably, the most popular of them is
sarmale (a type of
cabbage roll/grapevine roll) with
mămăligă. Another very popular Romanian dish based on
mămăligă is called
bulz, and consists of
mămăligă with cheese and butter and roasted in the oven. Balmoș (sometimes spelled balmuș) is another
mămăligă-like traditional Romanian dish, but is more elaborate. Unlike
mămăligă (where the cornmeal is boiled in water) when making
balmoș the cornmeal must be boiled in
sheep milk. Other ingredients, such as butter, sour cream,
telemea (a type of
feta cheese),
caș (a type of fresh
curdled ewe cheese without
whey, which is sometimes called "
green cheese" in English),
urdă (similar to
ricotta), etc., are added to the mixture at certain times during the cooking process. It is a specialty dish of old Romanian shepherds, and nowadays very few people still know how to make a proper
balmoș. == In literature ==