Let’s make dinner. The kind of dinner that warms the home with the oven, quiets the gentle with a skillet to often 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 excellent 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 a lot 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 in some way 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 number 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 per week I had SEVERAL emails in my inbox on the lookout for the recipe.
Okay so – y’all needed that recipe! Heard. Right here’s an up to date model of this straightforward, very creamy polenta. It’s topped with a easy selfmade tomato sauce that can be a wonderful place so as to add Italian sausage or an incredible place to cover any languishing veggies.
Make this cozy dinner precisely what you need it to be. It’s a largely palms off meal that’s excellent to set on as you’re ending the remainder of the day’s duties (in our cozy sweaters, after all). I’ll be sure you ask you earlier than I’m going deleting any extra recipes.
Listed here are the elements 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 be an incredible choice if that’s what you’ve readily available
• parmesan cheese, shredded or grated – no matter you favor
• cherry tomatoes which all the time appear to be in season and cook dinner all the way down to jammy and scrumptious
• tomato puree (not paste – that might be fairly thick)
• garlic and pink pepper flakes
• salt and pepper
• a splash of pink wine and a glass for you
• dried oregano and recent basil
Begin by buttering a sq. baking dish. Add water and stir within the polenta. Now, shimmy the entire pan to a scorching oven. The water will wish to slosh round however do your greatest to maintain it from spilling over. Set it, and neglect it. The polenta will slowly warmth and soak up the water.
Whereas the polenta slowly bakes to thick, make the tomato sauce. In a scorching pan, add olive oil and entire cherry tomatoes. Let the tomatoes burst earlier than including tomato puree, a splash of pink wine, salt, pepper and oregano. It’s a quite simple sauce. For those who 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 straightforward oven polenta. Simply look how delicate and spoonable! So dang cozy, proper?
Spoon heat tomato sauce over the delicate polenta. Prime with extra parmesan cheese, a great grind of black pepper, and possibly a glug of fine olive oil. The type our Auntie Ina would use. I wish to tear recent basil over the bowl however that’s a fanciness that doesn’t have to satisfy each bowl.
That is simply a type of cozy weeknight dinner that additionally makes fantastic lunch leftovers the following day.
Be properly. Be cozy! Go away any questions and critiques within the feedback beneath! xo
Baked Polenta with Burst Tomatoes
Prep Time: quarter-hour
Prepare dinner Time: 1 hour
Complete Time: about an hour
Yield: Serves 4
Class: dinner
Technique: baking
Description
A comfortable weeknight dinner that’s simply adaptable. Add veggie or meat sausage. Sprinkle with recent recent basil and revel in curled up on the sofa.
Elements
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 convey collectively the tomatoes. In a medium skillet over medium warmth add recent tomatoes (entire is ok) and olive oil. Sometimes stir the tomatoes across the pan till they start to burst over the following quarter-hour. Use a wood spoon to stir and smash the tomatoes. After the tomatoes are tender and smashed, add the garlic and pink pepper flakes and cook 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 couple of recent basil leaves, torn.
- To serve, spoon polenta into shallow bowls. Spoon tomato sauce on high. Prime with extra parmesan cheese and extra basil, when you’d like.
Key phrases: straightforward weeknight dinner, polenta, tomatoes, dinner recipe,
