SHE FIGURED IT OUT! Fried polenta and veggies

I have written about how polenta is not a food with which I grew up. As southern Italians, my grandmother had no patience for corn products: "that's for Northerners and pigs" was her categorical reply to any request for polenta. It sort of still sticks with me for corn on the cop, or even kernel corn. Not my favorite food. But Nana, "mi dispiace, ma mi piace polenta." I have sort of mastered SOFT polenta, but the crispy fried batons of polenta that you can get at Italian restaurants like my beloved Barbuto? Nope. Until today. YES. Annalena did it. And it was one of those "OF COURSE" moments, as Annalena saw, in a grain of sand (alright, a grain of polenta) many of her teachings to you coming together. I made it with a mix of vegetables and cheese, and I'll describe it, because GEEZ it was good, but you can make it any which what way you like. In fact, I bet most of you make something like this already.

For the polenta: This was so obvious I should have figured it out long ago. If the ratio for soft polenta is 4 parts liquid to one part polenta, cut down the liquid.That, in fact, is what I did. I used 3 parts and got a thick, heavy polenta, that I then poured onto a greased baking sheet. There was no fear of it spreading too thin. This stuff , like a good child (or a good man), stayed where you put it. I just evened it out, so that it was a nice rectangle, and let it sit, at room temperature, for two hours.

When I came back to it, it was firm and easy to cut into squares. YAY. First battle won.
The other problem I have always had is that the polenta has stuck to the pan when I fried it, even when using non stick. Well, I covered a non stick pan with a mix of butter and olive oil. When it got nice and hot, I added the slices of polenta... and saw defeat again.

PATIENCE I told myself "What do you always tell people about browning things? " So I set a timer, for three minutes, and went about doing something else. I could see a browning taking place, going up the sides of the polenta slices. When I flipped them...

SUCCESS!!!!! Yes. Annalena had fried polenta successfully. All was well, and I moved the slices to a paper towel to drain, because these suckers take up a lot of oil (incidentally, have someone watch you, or make more than you think you will need. These are too tempting not to steal and eat, even though they are very hot, and retain their heat for a while).

Now, for the veggie mix. Here's mine. I had a pint of grape tomatoes that were wrinkling up and giving me dirty looks. So I put them into a big pan with a swig of olive oil, and got them hot and sizzly. They began to break up from the heat, and adding some salt helped that along. I then added some cooked chopped spinach. I had boiled up two bunches of it the day before, and I just drained out all the water. So, this was cooked, and it only needed to be blended in with the tomatoes. Finally, about a third of a pound of fontina cheese, in small chunks, into the veggies, with the heat turned off.

This wonderfully stringly, messy dish of red and green vegetables resulted, which went divinely with the polenta.

You could leave out the cheese here, or you could substitute some beans instead, or you could use whatever vegetables you like. I think it might be really good to make sure to have something green and leafy in the dish, for moisture and nutrition, since you're probably eating more fat in this healthy dish than is permitted by any diet in the world. So, have a small portion like I did.

Ok, I lied about that. But I ran four miles today. I gotta get some calories back, right :)