Polenta au Gratin

The first time I used polenta, I had no clue what I was doing. I read in a magazine it was really healthy, you could buy it pre-made, and you could sautee it, bake it, whatever and it was wonderful. So I bought a roll of it, sliced it up, and tried to sautee it at my last college apartment. It was not good. Bean hated it and said he would never eat it again. He was wrong!

In this recipe, you cut it into small pieces, then cook it with pasta sauce, then mush it up until it's creamy. Then you layer it on the bottom of the pan, add a layer of mushrooms/onions/greens,

then add another layer of the polenta mixture on top. Look! I let Bean help!

This recipe had quite a bit of chopping vegetables. It's a lot of work, but the quantity of vegetables you are getting out of each serving is incredible because it doesn't feel like you are eating a huge plate of veggies. Again, we used regular cheese instead of the weird stuff:

Here's a cross section after we plated ours up:

It's not pretty, but the flavor was excellent! It is a definite repeat recipe.

Polenta au Gratin (from Clean Food by Terry Walters)

1 pound prepared polenta

1 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil

2 C. prepared pasta sauce

1/2 C. water

Cut polenta into small pieces. Heat olive oil in large pot over medium heat. Add polenta and saute 1 minute. Add 3 TBSP pasta sauce and water and stir. Cover and cook 5 minutes or until polenta softens and falls apart. Cream polenta with fork. Remove from heat, cover and set aside.

1 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 large red onion, thinly sliced

1 sprig fresh rosemary leaves, minced

1 C. thinly sliced cremini mushrooms (I think I used a different kind of mushrooms)

1 bunch swiss chard, chopped

1/4 C. grated soy or rice mozzarella or parmesan (I used regular grated parmesan)

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, onion and rosemary and saute until soft, adding water as needed to prevent sticking. Add mushrooms and chard. Cover and cook 3-4 minutes or until chard is soft. Season to taste with salt and pepper and remove from heat.

Lightly oil 8x8-inch casserole and spread half the polenta evenly over the bottom. Cover with half the remaining pasta sauce, the chard mixture, then remaining polenta, pasta sauce, and grated cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10 minutes. Remove from oven, let set 5 minutes and serve.