Wednesday, March 23, 2005

POLENTA!

I made polenta for supper tonight -- never done that before! It turned out fabulously. Here's the recipe I used, courtesy of Cooking Light:

For 4 servings:
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups 1% or 2% milk
5 tbsp yellow cornmeal
5 tbsp semolina (also known as pasta flour)
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup each grated parmesan and fontina cheeses (or just use 1/2 cup parmesan, like I did)

Combine broth and milk in saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add cornmeal, semolina, nutmeg, and salt gradually, whisking the whole time. Reduce heat to low and keep whisking for a bit. Cook 20 minutes, whisking occasionally. Stir in cheeses just before serving.

(Note: polenta is delicious, ooey-gooey cheesey, but firms up quite quickly. Make it just before you plan to eat it, and I suggest making only the number of servings you need -- the leftovers turn into a cake-like substance, which can be sliced and pan-fried, but I personally think it's much better the first time around.) :)

As my polenta was cooking, I made up a quick topping:

Saute together:
bit of olive oil
about a half cup roughly chopped onion
a clove of garlic, smashed/minced/whatever
few shakes Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
Add:
1 or 2 links turkey Italian sausage, cut from casings and gently broken up
Continue sauteeing until sausage is no longer pink. Add:
1 cup frozen spinach
half a small zucchini, sliced and then cut in half
Cook for a few minutes until the spinach is thawed and the zucchini is crisp-tender. Add:
1 can diced tomatoes with liquid
1/2 cup tomato soup (leftover . . . !!)
3 leaves basil, chiffonade
Bring just to a boil. Cut the heat and serve over the polenta!

Off to choir practice . . .

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my, so many comments to remember because I decided to put them all on one comment form....

1) da-da-da... ROTFLMAO!!! I told our worship leader that if she ever improvised with a song I didn't know that I was going to close my eyes, raise my hands, and sway. ;)

2) Handel!!! The whole Messiah???? I WANT TO COME!!! but i can't. see my blog for more info. :(

3) Uh-oh....I'm starting to forget my comments...hold on while I open another window and go back to your main page...

4)Aha! Crystallized ginger sounds awesome! And I would love the "hot" part!

5)Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm nummy pizza

6)Jon wouldn't eat even the green parts of the onion. ;)

7)Booster chair...so funny! Everythime I get a haircut, the person cutting my hair is constantly pressing on the foot lever, trying to make the chair go lower. But it's already as low as it will go. :)

8)Hmmmm, polenta. Don't really know what it is, so no comment. Except maybe you'll have to make it for me sometime. :D

That's it! Great blogging, Catherine!!

Catherine Weber said...

Well, we're not doing the WHOLE Messiah . . . just parts 2 and 3. (I think we're skipping the Christmas part.)

I threw out my batch of crystalized ginger because it just didn't taste good to me. I'll have to buy some and try it again, and then see. (Plus, 24 hours later, it was still sticky -- it was supposed to dry!)

During my haircut, I got to go for a little ride -- I got pumped all the way up, as far as the chair would go for cutting the perimeter, and then . . . wheeee! . . . went all the way down when it was time for layers.

Polenta is good. If you like cornbread, you'd probably like polenta. Have you ever had corn meal mush? (As a hot breakfast cereal.) It's kind of the same idea -- creamy, cornmeal-based, but savory -- it's really good under something soupy, because the polenta absorbs all the moisture. It's popular in Italy -- I think it actually originated there.