I had my 29th birthday in August this year. I couldn't believe this was the last year of my twentiesTo celebrate, A took me to a lovely, modern, minimalistic Italian restaurant. I find that these modern places have a lot more vegetarian options than the typical, traditional Italian ones. We started off with a delicious dish called Polenta Fries, which was basically fried polenta sticks with a Fontina cheese dip. That was my very first taste of polenta and LOVED it.
Polenta is just corn meal / corn grits. It is extensively used in Italian cuisine and is very quick and easy to prepare. It is very versatile and can be used in several ways.
Preparing polenta is just like pasta: boil in salted water. It cooks in about 15 minutes and has a very creamy texture without having to add heavy cream. Once it cools down, it solidifies a little and can be removed from the pan to look like a sponge cake.
For this dish, I cut the polenta into cubes, grilled some zucchini ribbons and stacked them to make my leaning tower!
Served with a refreshing salad and a basil-yogurt sauce. Delizioso!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup uncooked polenta
2.5 cups water
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 zucchini - cut into 2 inch slices
1 cup arugula
1/4 cup Pecans - Toasted in the oven for 5 mins at 350F and roughly chopped
Olive oil
Salt to taste
Sauce:
1/2 packed cup fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup non-fat Greek Yogurt
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon water
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus extra, as needed
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra, as needed
This recipe serves 2
- To cook the polenta: bring 2 cups of slightly salted water to boil. Slowly whisk in the polenta and keep whisking till it starts cooking just a bit. Add the 1 tbsp of butter and continue mixing gently for about 5 - 8 minutes. Taste and continue cooking for another minute if needed. Set aside to cool.
- Drizzle some olive oil in a skillet and grill the zucchini slices with a dash of salt. These need to cook on each side for about 3 minutes until brown. Set aside.
- Once the polenta has cooled. just invert the pan over a plate. Cut the polenta into cubes of any size. Brush some more oil on the pan and grill the polenta on both sides. This takes longer than the zucchini. It needs to slightly brown, so grill this for about 5 minutes on each side.
- Assemble the dish by stacking the polenta cubes and zucchini slices alternatingly. Serve with arugula and toasted pecans.
For the sauce:
In a blender, combine the basil, greek yogurt, olive oil, water, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Blend until smooth.
Pour the sauce over the stacks and enjoy your Leaning Tower of Polenta!
