Fried Polenta with Marinara sauce

I discovered the local food coop has bulk polenta. It's cheap and easy, 2 of my favorite themes in cooking. The directions are to boil it with water and salt for 20 minutes, then add butter/oil and parmesan and either eat or cool. I like to cool it in a greased pie pan, then fry it up in wedges as a side dish. For example if you have some very fancy mushrooms, you could cook them up in a cream sauce (maybe add sherry?) and serve it over the crispy polenta wedges.

However, I started getting complaints. I guess the wedge thing looks a little overwhelming to some family members. (I like to stack them up so they look all pointy and modern.) I even got a joking threat that polenta may have to be banned. Obviously this calls for what I will call the "Raising Arizona" technique: deployment of funny shapes.

I used dinosaur, hippo, pig, heart and star
cookie cutters to make pleasing polenta pieces.

The assembly is simple--heat a jar of your favorite marinara sauce. Fry polenta in a non-stick pan until both sides are browned and crisp. Serve polenta sprinkled with parmesan with the sauce on the side. Add a salad that has some nuts or cheese in it for protein, and dinner is ready.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

These are great! Kid-friendly and tasty for adults, too!

Alice said...

of course--silly shapes---i will try this for my discerning young diners.