This is a tasty and filling one pot supper that’s as versatile as a pizza with what you can throw on top. I have to admit i’ve always been slightly dubious about polenta, but that’s only because i’ve never tried cooking with it before.
What is polenta?
Well if you don’t know it’s ground cornmeal and regarded as classic Italian peasant food that’s been eaten since Roman times. To cook with it you simmer it in liquid and then leave it to set before typically baking frying it as the basis for another dish. In this case the base of a one pot bake that makes a refreshing change from old faves pizza and lasagne.
My recipe is based on one I found in Aldo Zilli’s brilliant vegetarian book Fresh and Green, but i’ve given it a bit of a tweak and re-written it here for you as the quantities weren’t working for me. Polenta is so filling we all decided you needed a fairly thin layer to form the base of the dish.
It doesn’t taste of a great deal, so you need some really robust flavours to put on top. I went with Aldo’s suggestion of tomatoes roasted with oregano and garlic mushrooms as we weren’t feeding the kids for this meal. I don’t know about you but there are some ingredients I don’t bother buying very often because the boys hate them, so I end up really missing them. This was a happy reunion…
Grilled polenta with roasted tomatoes and garlic mushrooms
recipe adapted from Aldo Zilli’s Fresh & Green
feeds 6
500g plum tomatoes
1 tbsp dried oregano
100ml olive oil
375g instant polenta
1 tbsp butter, for greasing
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
500g mushrooms, cut into halves (I used half button, half chestnut)
250g gruyere cheese, cut into small cubes (or your favourite cheese)
1. Preheat the oven to 100C/80C fan/gas 1. Cut the tomatoes in half and put on a baking tray cut-side up. Season with salt and pepper, herbs and a generous drizzling of the olive oil. Cook for one hour.
2. Boil the polenta according to packet instructions – really making sure your stir it well. Pour it into a buttered baking dish, smoothing it into an even layer and set aside to cool.
3. Heat the rest of the olive oil in a pan and cook the garlic and mushrooms over a medium heat for 15 minutes. Spoon the garlic mushrooms over the polenta, then place the roasted tomatoes on top. Dot the cubes of cheese over the tomatoes and all around the mushrooms, then cook under the grill for around 10 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and golden.
4. Cut into wedges and serve with a big green salad.
Tips
If I made this again i’d try cooking the polenta in vegetable stock instead of water, and i’d try it out on the kids with the vegetables they like – roasted peppers, cherry tomatoes and sweetcorn perhaps.
Don’t underestimate how much you need to stir the polenta when you add the water – it’s a tricky beast and gets very clumpy and lumpy so give it some proper elbow grease!
If you’re trying to fill hungry tummies, this most certainly works.
As this dish is bustling with seasonal tomatoes I thought I’d enter it into Simple and in Season, a celebration of recipes using the produce most abundant this month in a blogging event from Ren Behan that I’m hugely honoured to be hosting this month. If you happen to be cooking a seasonal recipe then you can take part… check out the September page on my blog for more info.
I too have never cooked with polenta as I have only eaten it once and found it rather flavourless. This dish looks very tasty though and like cous cous I imagine that by using chicken stock it would improve the depth of flavour. I think I’d be tempted to put some black olives on aswell!
I think it’s definitely a good base for autumnal meal inspiration… the key is to add lots of flavour like you say and yummy toppings!
This looks good Katie! I use polenta a lot for coatings and scattering on the counter when I’m rolling out pizza dough but I’ve never actually cooked it like this. I’m not sure if it would be popular with Rich but I like the idea of it being able to take pretty much whatever you throw at it. On the list to try very soon!
let me know how you get on!
My dad still grows corn for polenta in Italy so I get really nice flour for polenta making. I love the look of this dish, especially with the mushrooms which are in season now!
PS: I have moved my blog to mylittleitaliankitchen.com
Ooh that looks rather yummy, have never really taken to polenta but you might have convinced me to give it another go, live the mushrooms and roasted toms x
I love polenta and this looks delicious!! Must give it a try as i love mushrooms and toms too 🙂
This looks like a great twist – I think I’ll give it a try this week!