Polenta, we finally tried polenta.

I've been wanting to try polenta, and I think the thing that was holding me back was that I had no idea what it tasted like, so I had no idea how to conjure up a recipe.  I found lots of interesting ones online, but nothing really struck my fancy.  I bit the bullet and just made something up, and lo and behold, it turned out pretty good and only took about 5-10 minutes of actual work.  I do have to confess, I used a store bought tube of premade polenta.  But since it was my first try, I'm not being too hard on myself.

I actually really liked the polenta and was happily suprised that my husband did too.  Noorah was in a bad mood, so getting her to try any food and like it was out of the question.  I'll try her again later. The polenta was kind of like a cheesy, creamy cake of cornbread that was all crispy around the edges.  It was a little sweet and very filling.

So here's what I did.  After staring blackly at that little tube for some time, I decided to make a "polenta bruschetta" type thing.  Again, I am really bastardising these ethnic foods, but let's just say it's a Bruschetta inspired dish, and leave it at that. 

So I sliced the polenta into 1/2" thick slices.  Then I topped it with a thick slice of tomato, and diced zucchini.  I drizzled them with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I meant to do a little garlic but I forgot. 

My little helper was fantastic!

What a big girl!



Pop these under the broiler, but put your rack in the middle or lower so they dont get charred on the outside.  Leave them in util the edges of the polenta start to darken and crisp up.  Add a bit of mozzerella cheese and put back under until the cheese starts to brown.  That's it!

I also had extra zucchini and tomatoes so I chopped them with an onion, a little salt, pepper, garlic and olive oil, and threw that under the broiler too.

When that came out, I smooshed the tomatoes a bit.  This was our dip to eat with fresh homemade pita.  In all honesty, I liked the dip better than the polettas(that's the name I came up with for my polenta bruschettas).  But for a first try it was good, and I knew what I would do differently to improve it.  I would broil the polenta first so it would crisp up a little, and I would not forget the garlic! And I would use fresh mozzerella instead of generic shredded pizza topping.  



Now to try making the polenta from scratch!!