One of my new favorite dishes is vegetarian polenta topped with melty fresh mozzarella. The quick (and delicious way), is to buy a tube of pre made organic polenta (I get mine from Trader Joe’s or a local health food store) and slice it into ½ inch rounds.
Then I pour a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a non-stick pan (important because it is prone to sticking) and fry them up for about 10 minutes per side. When they are nice and golden with a crisp layer, I put them on a large cookie sheet, top them with a little fresh mozzarella ball and broil them about 2 minutes. The cheese caramelizes as it melts. As long as you keep an eye on them so they don’t burn, they ALWAYS come out absolutely delicious. I make a tomato sauce to serve on the side. In the summer, I make a fresh sauce with local organic heirloom tomatoes. Otherwise, I use canned Cento San Marzano tomatoes.
For a party, it would be great to fry up a bunch of slices, top them with the cheese, set them aside, and then put them under the broiler right as your guests arrive. As a main dish, one tube of polenta cuts into about 13 slices and feeds two people. Served with a salad and broiled zucchini or eggplant, it makes a stellar summer vegetarian meal, worthy of all members of the family and the most discerning guests.
“Recipe” Serves 4
2 tubes of polenta cut into 1/2 inch slices
2 Tbs. good olive oil for frying
1 eight oz. container of fresh mozzarella
A couple cups of your favorite tomato sauce
Bon Apetit!
7 thoughts on “Polenta Medallions with Tomato Sauce”
Polenta is good stuff! I like the sundried tomatoes kind and garlic kinds.
Polenta is definitely good stuff. The sun dried tomato kind is probably the most flavorful, while still allowing the flavors of your sauce to come through. Yum!
I really like this idea! Polenta medallions look great!
How creative! For some reason, this reminds me of eggplant parmesan…except it’s polenta and mozzarella. Gorgeous picture! My coeditor put up a great recipe on Recipe4Living for polenta fries – I thought that was pretty creative too 🙂
Thanks Patricia and Hillary! It DOES look a bit like eggplant parmasean and in fact, the polenta is awesome served with some broiled or grilled eggplant on the side.
Looks fabulous. How would you shape homemade polenta into rounds?
Mary, I suppose I would make the cornmeal from scratch, get it to the right consistency, with a decent amount of fat in it, then oil a sheet pan and spread a 1/2 inch layer of the polenta all the way to the edges of the pan. Then I would bake that so that it had some crispness at the top and bottom. Then, with a cookie or biscuit cutter, I’d cut out the rounds. Since this is all hypothetical for the moment, I’m not sure exactly what the consistency would be. So, I don’t know if they would hold together well enough that you could just do the last step with the cheese and the broiler, or if the would still be soft enough to need to go into a pan for a bit with some oil to firm up a bit. So, I know that’s a long speculative answer, but I think it would work. If you try it let me know. If I try it, I’ll post it. Thanks!