Our Experiments with Polenta

What is polenta? Good question. We picked up some polenta from Trader Joe's this weekend and madethese awesome little appetizers for a light dinner. The funny thing is that about a week ago, I passed the aisle and noticed the polenta, but the packaging looked too much like sausage that I didn't even touch it to look at the ingredients. Then, I go grocery shopping with my hubby and he picks up the very thing that I was afraid of. It turns out that polenta is simply ground up cornmeal. That's not so bad!! The recipe for this is pretty easy. .

1.We bought the log of polenta so cut half the log into once inch round pieces. (For two people, we needed 8 pieces). Sautee them in some oil until golden brown and crispy.
2. Chop some onions into thin long strips. Sautee those in another pan. Add garlic and salt. Then add the chopped spinach and cook until spinach wilts.
3. Grate some cheese.
4. Now, assemble like so : Lay down one sauteed polenta piece on bottom of plate. Top with a little spinach and onion action and a little grated cheese. Place the second polenta piece on top. Add some more spinach mix. Add a dollop of pasta or marinara sauce and finally some parmesan cheese.
4. Repeat as necessary for the remaining polenta.

The polenta bites tasted really good. I will take no credit for this one, though. B made dinner and the creativity credit goes 100% to him. It certainly makes for a great appetizer, though, and it doesn't hurt that it looks like it was made in a restaurant!


We still have the other half of the polenta. Here's another variation to the above recipe. Grill the polenta pieces the same as above. Instead of the spinach mix, we added grilled onions and peppers. Finally, we made some Southwest sauce by mixing mayo, vinegar, garlic and some red chili oil.

Assemble like so: Lay down one piece of the grilled polenta on plate. Top with the sauce, then with the grilled veggies. Place the other barrel of polenta on top and repeat the garnishing. This one tasted equally delish. Sorry, no picture, though, because they were gone too fast!