You should be able to create a Dynamic Web Application project and then add a Portlet facet to it and then create portlets.

But if you are new to portlets, I recommend not using the Portlet facet and instead creating the portlet class and the configuration files manually. This way you learn more about how to create a portlet WAR file and what it requires. After you are comfortable with that, then you can start using the Portlet Facet.

I recommend doing it this way because when you are first learning a new technology you do not want to be fighting with the IDE. If you do everything by hand, then you have only yourself and your understanding to blame. If you are using a IDE to do things for you automatically, if things go wrong, you never know if it was your lack of understanding or issues with the IDE that caused the problem. Anyway, that is my two pfennings.