My oldest sister and talented chef/cheese monger and connaisseur has some amazing recipes to contribute which will be posted here!
Polenta bolognese Bake
The Polenta part:
1 cup of coarse ground cornmeal/polenta
4 cups of boiling water
Salt, parmegean drizzl oilve oil (to top with after cooking)
=whisk the polenta into a heavy pot with the boiling 4 cups of water. Add a little salt to the mixture. Not too much. Heat on stove should be on med-high. Stir until lumps are broken and mixture is smooth. Lower heat to low and stir mixture every 5 minutes. Keep on the stove 1and 1/2 hrs. Taste to check doneness of grain. When it tastes creamy and the grain is fully incorporated, add a handful of grated parm, a little drizzle of olive oil. Pot can stay on stove, covered, as other parts are being assembled..
The Bolognese:
Finely minced 1-2 cup of: carrot, onion, garlic, mushrooms (mixture of sorts- i used portabella) 2 plumb tomatoes or 1/2 can of diced or diced whole tomatoes, vegetable stock or water if you have no stock.* if you have any other vegies that need to be used: celery, parsnips, olives!! (yummy) add them too!
oilve oil or canola oil for browning
=combine the above in a large pan or heavy pot. Stir on med heat to brown.
Add salt, pepper, herbs(thyme, mixed italian herbs oregano, basil) I added fennel seeds.
when browned, add tomatoes. Add 1 cup of vegetable stock, carefully and slowly adding to vegies. a little at a time. keep on low heat and let sauce form and reduce.
fake-meat:
dice 1/2 onion and cook in hot pan w a little oil. Add Smartground or other vegie meat. Brown well. Season with a little s&p, some herbs if you want. Eventually, you will add this to the bolognese sauce. don;t want it to be too watery or for the ‘meat’ to be too soggy so dont mix it in until the end stages…
cheese! have some grated moz or other tasty melting cheese plus some parm.
Assemble the casserole:
take a square baking dish or oven safe corning ware.
Spread 2/3 of the polenta
sprinkle some grated moz on the polenta.
combine the meat and the sauce together and pour over the polenta.
top with the 1/3 of the polenta.
sprinkle with grated cheese!!!
bake for about 40 minutes.. the last 5 minutes, turn on the broiler to give the top a nice crusty golden brown cheesy finish!
