OK I’ve had the Mexican sweet tamales, which is kind-of polenta. And I may have had polenta sometime in the past without knowing it. But tonight I made my first polenta dish, and possibly ate my first actual polenta.
No, I didn’t make it from scratch. I got a chub from Trader Joe’s and used that. I cut the chub into nine slices and put the slices in a 3x3 grid in a 9"x9" glass baking dish that I had sprayed with cooking spray. I added half a jar of Trader Giotto’s Bolognese con Carne pasta sauce and topped with freshly-grated Romano cheese. I baked it in the convection toaster oven at 350º for 25 minutes, and then topped a couple of rounds with more Romano when I put them on my plate.
Very tasty! I’ll have to figure out more ways to use the stuff. And eventually I’ll have to try making it from scratch.
take the polenta puck and fry gently in the leavings from bacon, and scramble a couple eggs to go along, put the eggs on the polenta and surround with bacony yumminess…
take the polenta puck, fry in butter, top with a medallion of butter sauteed foie gras, or top with sauteed onions, or top with chili, or top with curry …
I made polenta-tamale pie tonight. I cooked a can of black beans in a skillet with salsa and chopped red bell pepper. Then I poured the beans in a 9x9 glass dish, sprinkled it with shredded jack cheese and then layered the premade polenta-pucks on top. I baked the whole thing at 325 for about half an hour. It was delicious.
I’m not really sure if bean -> cheese -> polenta was the right order of things. I thought it might be kind of like shepherd’s pie, with the starchy component on top of the rest of the ingredients. But I think layering polenta -> bean -> cheese would make things come together a bit better.