Baked Polenta With Mushrooms
photo by Lori Mama
- Ready In:
- 35mins
- Ingredients:
- 12
- Yields:
-
1 pan
- Serves:
- 6-8
ingredients
- 4 1⁄2 cups water or 4 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1⁄2 cups coarse cornmeal or 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 3⁄4 teaspoon dried sage
- 7 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 1⁄2 lbs mushrooms, sliced thin (I like button mushrooms but use any of your choice or a combination)
- 1⁄2 teaspoon freshly ground coarse black pepper
- 6 ounces grated Fontina cheese
- garnish with chopped fresh parsley leaves
directions
- Heat oven to 350°F.
- In medium saucepan, bring the water and 1 teaspoon salt to a boil.
- Add the cornmeal in a slow stream, whisking.
- Whisk in tablespoon of the butter 1/4 teaspoon of the sage.
- Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until vey thick, about 20 minutes.
- Stir in 3 tablespoons of the Parmesan.
- Meanwhile, butter an 8"x12" baking dish.
- In a large frying pan, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and 1 tablespoon of the oil over moderately high heat.
- Add half the mushrooms, 1/2 of garlic 1/4 tsp each of the salt and sage and 1/4 tsp of the pepper.
- Cook, stirring frequently until the mushrooms are golden, about 5 minutes.
- Remove.
- Repeat with remaining mushrooms, salt, garlic, salt, sage and pepper.
- Pour half the polenta into the baking dish and spread in an even layer.
- Top with half the mushrooms, followed by half of the Fontina and 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan.
- Repeat with remaining polenta, mushrooms, Fontina and Parmesan.
- Bake until cheese is bubbling, about 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley.
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Reviews
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Very good, but I think the polenta itself is slightly bland and needs more spices (more sage, some pepper, and maybe some garlic). I doubled the garlic, and to the mushrooms, I added 1/2 t dried rosemary. I left out the butter and salt entirely, adding 1 T oil olive to the polenta and sautéing everything in 2 T olive oil (BTW, I managed to get all the mushrooms into one big skillet, so I sautéed everything at once). This was my first experience with Fotina cheese. I liked it, but it was expensive ($10/lb here), so next time, I'd substitute something cheaper (probably mozzarella).
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I also cut this in half and did one layer (used a 9.9) Upped the herbs a little, doubled the garlic (i always do) added some rosemary and thyme. Fantastic! This was my first time making polenta, and eating it. Fiance's first too and we both loved this! Served with recipe #107639 Very filling meal. Thanks!
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love & beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha & my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! <br /><br />I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? <br /><br />I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. <br /><br />From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations & a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree & wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)> </p>
<p>I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. <br /><br />However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />Learned how to do taxes with H&R Block and worked simultaneously as a Supervisor in 2 offices for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. <br /><br />However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) <br /><br />It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry /> All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba & Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old & used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted & was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! <br /><br />That proved to be the last straw & from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /></p>
<p>I have a beautiful large private room with a private bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic! <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself.<br /><br />During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /> Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) <br /><br />The head chef, the kitchen supervisor & the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /><br /><br />I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /></p>
<p>Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing /><br /><br /></p>