Let’s make dinner. The kind of dinner that warms the home with the oven, quiets the delicate with a skillet to sometimes stir on the stovetop, and ready in simply sufficient time to have a glass of wine and empty the dishwasher whereas dinner warms and simmers. This good quiet weeknight dish is straightforward baked polenta with a easy burst tomato sauce. Cozy on up!
Pals, hello! It’s the time of 12 months I rediscover all of the sweaters I’ve had tucked away for many of the 12 months. I might barely look a protracted sleeve shirt within the face this summer time however I’ve fluffed this cutie orange sweater out of the forgotten backside dresser drawer and I lastly really feel able to one way or the other gather the leaves which have fallen within the yard. I’ll in all probability name somebody for that tbh however, the sweater has me feeling cozy.
This week we’re bringing again what I believed was a protracted forgotten recipe right here on Pleasure the Baker. Baked polenta with a easy tomato topping – a weblog publish recipe that dates again to 2013. A couple of months in the past I began to purge a few of the very previous, much less visited recipes on the positioning to lighten the load. I deleted the baked polenta recipe actually, and not using a second thought and inside every week I had SEVERAL emails in my inbox in search of the recipe.
Okay so – y’all needed that recipe! Heard. Right here’s an up to date model of this simple, very creamy polenta. It’s topped with a easy do-it-yourself tomato sauce that can also be a superb place so as to add Italian sausage or an excellent place to cover any languishing veggies.
Make this cozy dinner precisely what you need it to be. It’s a largely arms off meal that’s good to set on as you’re ending the remainder of the day’s duties (in our cozy sweaters, in fact). I’ll you should definitely ask you earlier than I am going deleting any extra recipes.
Listed below are the components you’ll have to make this baked polenta dinner:
• polenta which is basically a rough cornmeal that bakes up right into a creamy porridge
• unsalted butter
• water
• heavy cream although milk can also be an excellent possibility if that’s what you might have readily available
• parmesan cheese, shredded or grated – no matter you like
• cherry tomatoes which all the time appear to be in season and prepare dinner all the way down to jammy and scrumptious
• tomato puree (not paste – that may be fairly thick)
• garlic and purple pepper flakes
• salt and pepper
• a splash of purple wine and a glass for you
• dried oregano and contemporary basil
Begin by buttering a sq. baking dish. Add water and stir within the polenta. Now, shimmy the entire pan to a sizzling oven. The water will wish to slosh round however do your finest to maintain it from spilling over. Set it, and neglect it. The polenta will slowly warmth and take in the water.
Whereas the polenta slowly bakes to thick, make the tomato sauce. In a sizzling pan, add olive oil and complete cherry tomatoes. Let the tomatoes burst earlier than including tomato puree, a splash of purple wine, salt, pepper and oregano. It’s a quite simple sauce. When you needed so as to add some Italian sausage or sautéed mushrooms, there’s a great deal of methods to bulk up the sauce particularly with any leftover veggies crying for assist in the fridge.
When the polenta has largely thickened, take away it from the oven and stir in butter, cream, and parmesan cheese. The good things as a result of fats will add taste and richness to this simple oven polenta. Simply look how tender and spoonable! So dang cozy, proper?
Spoon heat tomato sauce over the tender polenta. High with extra parmesan cheese, an excellent grind of black pepper, and perhaps a glug of fine olive oil. The type our Auntie Ina would use. I wish to tear contemporary basil over the bowl however that’s a fanciness that doesn’t have to fulfill each bowl.
That is simply a kind of cozy weeknight dinner that additionally makes great lunch leftovers the following day.
Be properly. Be cozy! Depart any questions and critiques within the feedback beneath! xo
Baked Polenta with Burst Tomatoes
Prep Time: quarter-hour
Prepare dinner Time: 1 hour
Whole Time: about an hour
Yield: Serves 4
Class: dinner
Technique: baking
Description
A comfy weeknight dinner that’s simply adaptable. Add veggie or meat sausage. Sprinkle with contemporary contemporary basil and luxuriate in curled up on the sofa.
Substances
Scale
For the Polenta:
For the Tomatoes:
Directions
- Place racks within the higher third and center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 levels F.
- Grease a 9×9-inch sq. baking pan generously with butter. Gently stir water, cornmeal, and salt straight within the greased pan. Fastidiously place the pan within the center rack of the oven, hopefully with out sloshing any water out of the pan. We’ll bake the polenta for 45 minutes. Take away from the oven and stir within the butter, cream, and parmesan cheese. Bake one other quarter-hour, or till the highest is dry and doesn’t jiggle a lot.
- Whereas the polenta bakes, we’ll carry collectively the tomatoes. In a medium skillet over medium warmth add contemporary tomatoes (complete is okay) and olive oil. Often stir the tomatoes across the pan till they start to burst over the following quarter-hour. Use a picket spoon to stir and smash the tomatoes. After the tomatoes are tender and smashed, add the garlic and purple pepper flakes and prepare dinner for an additional 2 minutes or so.
- Season with a beneficiant pinch of salt. Add the tomato puree, a splash of wine (when you’d like), and oregano. Simmer gently till the polenta comes out of the oven. A couple of minutes earlier than serving, stir in a number of contemporary basil leaves, torn.
- To serve, spoon polenta into shallow bowls. Spoon tomato sauce on prime. High with extra parmesan cheese and extra basil, when you’d like.
Key phrases: simple weeknight dinner, polenta, tomatoes, dinner recipe,
