Picked up some delicious, fresh, local baby spinach at Green Fields Market a few days ago. I love that we can get local greens all winter long now! Add some local feta to it here and, if you were lucky enough to get some at Winter Fare, polenta from local corn.
If you are using plain, unseasoned tomato sauce, zip it up with a bit of sauteed garlic and onion and a bit of oregano.
3 cups water
1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
1 cup polenta cornmeal
Olive oil
3/4 cup tomato sauce
1/4 lb baby spinach, stemmed and chopped
2-3 oz. crumbled feta
3 oz. shredded mozzarella
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a large saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add the salt, and whisk in the polenta meal. Lower the heat to a simmer and continue to stir with a spoon. Be careful, as the cooking polenta is viscous and can bubble up and burn you. Cooking time will vary with the type of polenta you are using. The kind I get at Green Fields Market, in the bulk section, thickens up very quickly. You want it to be pretty stiff for this application. When the polenta is cooked, remove from heat, cover, and set aside for now.
Oil a 10-inch oven-proof skillet or a 7x11-inch baking dish. Spread the cooked polenta in the bottom. Top with the sauce, then pile on the chopped spinach. Sprinkle with feta, then top with mozzarella.
Bake the polenta for about 15 minutes, until the cheese begins to brown and the spinach is wilted. Serve hot.
Serves about 4.
Just a tip I ran across in a cookbook re: cooking polenta - I find I am too impatient and dump the cornmeal into the boiling water too quickly and it clumps up. To avoid this, I mix cold water with the cormeal (just enough to wet it thoroughly), boil the remaining water, and dump the wet cornmeal in. No clumping!
ReplyDeleteYour recipes are great inspiration when I am contemplating yet another meal out of the freezer.