Recipe Archives->Vegetarian->Polenta Pizza 02

Polenta Dish

12 oz polenta 
32 oz water
1 tsp salt

8 oz mushrooms, sliced
3 shallots, diced
1 small zuccini (courgette), diced
1/2 tsp ground red pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt (if using salted veggie stock/cooking wine, omit)
1/4 cup liquid for deglazing (wine/water/veggie stock)

8 oz pasta sauce
6 oz mozarella (or equivalent) shredded

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Saute the vegetables in salt and oil until they are cooked and most
of the water released has evaporated.  Add the liquid, and let it
reduce to half.  Remove from the heat, and set aside.

Bring the water to a boil, add the 1 tsp salt, and slowly stir in
the polenta.  Reduce the heat, and let it simmer, stirring continuously
and carefully for about 5 minutes.  It will be not-quite-cooked at
this point.  Spread half into the bottom of a 2-2.5 quart casserole
dish.

Spread half the pasta sauce on the polenta in casserole.  Sprinkle
a little grated mozzarella on it, and then spread the sauteed
veggies on top of that.  Sprinkle a little more mozzarella, and
spread the rest of polenta on top.  Cover with more sauce, and any
remaining cheese.

Bake covered for 30 minutes.  Let it cool uncovered for 15 minutes
before slicing.  Serves 3-4.


Variations:

Using a vegan cheese substitute is an obvious alteration, but I
suspect it would vegan-ize well even if the cheese is simply omitted.

It might also be good to include some sort of fast-cooking lentil.
(I'm thinking adding mashed moong beans to the filling would be
really delicious.)

If you're using plain tomato sauce, adding garlic and herbs might
be nice.

Printable version: polenta-pizza02.txt.