Polenta

Gently Baked Polenta

Another Italian pauper food turned gourmet. Typically polenta is a porridge made from cornmeal and adorned with any combination of seasonings. Some refer to it as Italian grits. In most restaurants when you are served polenta it's a creamy dollop accompanying some protein. Occasionally you'll find polenta fries or frites where the porridge is made thick and firm so it can be cut and deep fried.

Growing up my Nana made polenta like a porridge first and then baked it in the oven. I remember it was a treat to taste the soft porridge before baking. I can't recall a time when she ever served it as porridge. After baking she would cut it into squares to serve and you could pick them up like a brownie when they cooked off.

Nana's polenta started with caramelized onions and garlic (of course), then she'd saute frozen or canned spinach in the garlic / onion mix and add beef consomme, canned stewed tomatoes and the cornmeal and stir until the cornmeal was cooked. She would add grated cheese and pepper and spread the mixture into a banking pan and bake it for an hour or so until it was firm enough to cut into squares.

Polenta in Place of Pasta

At one point I had a neighbor, Trudy De Luca, who baked her polenta in a loaf pan with only salt, pepper, and grated cheese. When she served it she would cut it into slices and on a plate top it with her favorite spaghetti souse or gravy in place of traditional Sunday pasta. That was GF before GF was a thing back in the early 1980s, Trudy was ahead of her time, for sure!

Polenta: the glue that binds any combination of ingredients!

My recipe is a kind of a combination of the best of what I learned from Trudy and Nana. For this post, I used the obligatory garlic and onion, but with fresh spinach, and fresh grape tomatoes. Keep in mind that you can add pretty much anything to the porridge. It's a great way to use leftover vegetables, if you're into mushrooms, peppers, asparagus, artichokes, or capers and olives, be creative and include some combination of them. I've, on occasion, added bacon to my recipe, but for some reason, I typically exclude meat. I do typically use the consomme, but if true vegetarian is your desire, you can use vegetable broth.

Saute onion and garlic until just golden in color

Add tomatoes

'Sweat" tomatoes to extract juices

Stir in spinach

Add concumme or broth of your choice

Bring to boil

Masarepa cornmeal is precooked and makes this receipe really simple

Add the cornmeal

Stir or whisk to combine

When mixture in well combined it's ready for the bakling dish

Stir in the first does of grated cheese

Smooth the top and sprinkle dose 2 of cheese

After baking let sit for a few minutes before serving

THE RECIPE:

1 C cornmeal (I used fine masarepa which is quite fine and precooked)

1 can Campbell's consomme plus enough water to total 3 cups

2 T butter

1 medium onion diced

a couple of cloves of minced garlic

1 - 2 C grape tomatoes sliced lengthwise

10 Oz. fresh spinach

1 C grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

• In a large stock pot, melt butter and add onions and garlic

• keep covered and saute until the onions begin to caramelize to a golden color

• Add the tomatoes, replace the lid and simmer until tomatoes are very soft and have released their juices

• Add the spinach and stir to coat and saute until wilted

• Add the water / consomme and increase heat to boil

• Stir or whisk cornmeal into boiling mixture until it thickens (like a porridge)

• Remove from heat and season (after tasting a bit) with salt and or pepper

• Stir in 1/2 of the grated cheese and transfer to a baking dish

• Sprinkle with half of the remaining cheese

• Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour

• Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and serve

You will be able to cut the polenta into squares to serve but it will remain soft and creamy and you will not be able to pick it up with your fingers to eat. I think that this recipe offers the perfect perfect blend of the porridge-like texture in today's cuisine and my Nana's stiffer baked version.