Veggin’

The Giro takes us into the region of Tuscany for the next couple of days. We transition from the Piedmont region, where dishes feature heavy peasant food, to an area where simple dishes are king. Sauces and garnishes are used in a way that do not mask the natural flavor of the food. The refined cooking in this region features olive oil and the use of herbs, especially sage, rosemary and basil.

The Tuscans are very fond of cooking beans. That is why I chose this particular dish. The naming of this recipe is truly inspired as its name comes from the seasoning – garlic and sage – which are typically used in chicken dishes. That’s where “uccelletto” comes from. It means “birdy”. So, these are white beans made “birdy style”.  (But, no cooking actual birdies on Veggin’, right?)

The directions and recipe are a compilation of several recipes I found from various sources. My goal was to make this a quick and easy “after work” type meal that you can make after a long day. I used canned white beans and diced tomatoes. If you have a little more time, by all means soak dry beans over night and/or use fresh tomatoes. Either way, I highly recommend using fresh sage over the dried stuff. It’s worth that extra freshness (especially if you’re using canned ingredients.)

Fagioli all’Uccelletto con Sage Polenta
(Beans recipe: by Megabeth)
(Sage Polenta recip: by Adopt a Turkey)

Ingredients for the polenta
5 cups water or light vegetable stock
1 ½ cups polenta
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp minced fresh sage, or ½ tsp dried sage
½ tsp ground pepper
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast (If you’re not familiar with nutritional yeast read this.)
1 tsp sea salt

Ingredients for the beans
2 15oz cans white cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 14oz can diced tomatoes
2 Tablespoons fresh sage, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper, to taste

To make the polenta:

In a large saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Gradually whisk in the polenta and whisk constantly for 5 minutes.

Reduce heat to a simmer and add the remaining ingredients.

Continue cooking, whisking every 5 minutes, until the polenta starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 15 minutes. Set aside and keep warm.

For the beans…

In a saucepan or deep skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the garlic and fresh sage. Cook until garlic is soft and not too brown. Add the tomatoes to the skillet and turn down the heat.

Simmer tomatoes for 15 minutes.

Add the white beans to the skillet, add salt and pepper to taste and simmer for an additional 15 minutes.

Serve beans over the sage polenta.

Looking for a little something different to make for dinner tonight that’s easy to make, warm and filling?  Then make this polenta with spinach and chanterelle mushroom dish. This is definitely going to be on normal rotation in my kitchen especially during this seemingly never-ending winter.

I had three pans going at the same time on the stove – mushrooms were simmering, polenta was cooking and the spinach was sauteing. Never fear, though, you won’t get that “spinning plates” feeling. Everything cooks in it’s own time and there is no fear of burning or overcooking.

Cheesy Polenta with Sauteed Spinach and Chanterelles
adapted by Megabeth from What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway?

1 cup fine cornmeal
1 Tablespoon salt
2 Tablespoons margarine
1/2 cup Gouda cheese, shredded
freshly ground pepper
1 oz package dried chanterelle mushrooms
1 cup vegetable broth
olive oil
tamari
1 garlic clove, minced
3-4 tightly packed cups fresh baby spinach

Add mushrooms and stock to a small pot, bring stock to a boil.  Turn heat to low and let them simmer for about 20 minutes.

In large pot, bring three cups of water to a boil with 1 Tablespoon of salt. Whisk the cornmeal into the boiling water and turn heat to low. Let cornmeal absorb the water, then add an additional 3 cups of water 1/2 cup at a time. Let each 1/2 cup of water absorb before adding the next. Stir occasionally to ensure that the polenta does not stick to the bottom of the pan.

When the polenta is near the end of cooking, remove mushrooms from cooking broth and then saute in a small pan with 2 teaspoons olive oil. Add a splash of tamari to the mushrooms. Heat through and remove from pan into a small bowl. (If there are large pieces of mushrooms, feel free to cut some smaller.)

Add another 3 teaspoons of olive oil and garlic to the saute pan. Let garlic saute a bit. Add spinach to pan and wilt. Remove from heat.

Once the polenta is cooked, stir in gouda and margarine into the pan. Add freshly ground pepper to taste. Stir to combine. Cook for another 3-4 minutes until cheese and butter is melted.

Add polenta to serving bowl, top with sauteed spinach and mushrooms. Shred some additional gouda on the top to taste.

The Chubby Vegetarian featured this recipe with homemade polenta. I’ve adapted the recipe to include items that I already had on hand including the polenta in a tube. The benefit of making your own polenta is that you can make larger slices for the base of this dish. In my version, the base polenta is a bit smaller, so it’s best to cook it until quite brown and stiff so that it’s easier to eat. Otherwise, the polenta is too floppy to support the toppings.

(Another note: try not to make this when you are starving. We ate several of the browned polenta rounds while the toppings were still cooking. So, we didn’t have as many of the finished product. However, I had plenty of the spinach, white beans and tomatoes left over to have them for lunch the next day. They were even good on their own.)

Polenta with White Beans, Spinach and Caramelized Tomatoes
Adapted from The Chubby Vegetarian

- One container grape tomatoes
- 1/4 bag frozen spinach
- 1 15 oz can Cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 tube sun-dried tomato polenta
- 2 cloves garlic, diced
- balsamic vinegar
- shredded parmesean cheese
- olive oil
- kosher salt and pepper

- Preheat toaster oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, drizzle grape tomatoes with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir to coat tomatoes. Place tomatoes on foil lined baking sheet and cook in toaster oven for 20 minutes or until soft and bubbly.

- Slice polenta into 1/4 inch rounds. Place in pre-heated pan drizzled with a little olive oil to prevent sticking. Brown both sides of polenta. Remove polenta from pan and set on plates.

- Meanwhile, in microwave, heat frozen spinach per package directions. Once polenta is removed from the pan, add spinach into same pan and add 1/2 of the diced garlic. Heat spinach for one to two minutes or until garlic is cooked. Remove spinach from pan and set-aside.

- In same pan, add a little olive oil, white beans and salt and pepper. Cook beans until heated through and they begin to brown.

- Now it’s time to build the polenta stacks. On the polenta…

- Add the beans…

- Then one tomato…

- Add some spinach…

- and a little parmesean cheese…

- and finally a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

This weekend, I sat in front of the television a bit more than I meant to. I flipped between some old movies on TCM (Alfie, Marty, etc.) and the Food Network.  On Ultimate Recipe Showdown the theme was “comfort food” which spoke directly to me in the mood I was in. One competitor created “Mini Pumpkin Corn Quesadillas with Brazilian Avocado Butter“.  Unfortunately, I did have to scrape myself off the couch and head out to the grocery store to get a few of the ingredients, but it was well worth the trip.

I’ve adapted the original recipe a bit and turned it into “Butternut Squash Polenta bites with Brazilian avocado Butter”. Also, the original recipe as written was a bit difficult to follow so I’ve tried to re-write it a bit to help with the preparation steps. It does take a little bit of stove manipulation, however.  I had three pans going at once. If it’s hard for you to multi-task, the final dish won’t be in jeopardy if you decide to cook each layer separately rather than at the same time.

The result of this dish is indeed a tummy warming comfort food that can be a main dish, side dish, or an impressive appetizer. The complex flavors blend well into a really delightful mouthful.

Butternut Squash Polenta Bites with Brazilian Avocado Butter

Brazilian Avocado Butter:
1 ripe avocado
1 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon honey
1/8 cup olive oil
Salt

Polenta Bites:
Vegetable cooking spray
12 (1/2-inch) slices plain polenta “chub” purchased form the market
Butter or olive oil, to saute
1/2 finely diced red onion
1/2 cup frozen or fresh pre-diced butternut squash
1/3 cup sweet corn kernels
12 (1/2-inch) slices drunken goat or other mild “meltable” cheese
Jalapeno jelly, for garnish (I found this in the jelly section of my local grocery store)

Prepare the avocado butter first. Cube avocado. (Slice avocado in half and remove pit. Dice avocado inside the skin by holding 1/2 of the avocado in one hand. Then make several slices vertically then horizontally. Turn skin “inside out” to remove avocado into bowl.) Put next four ingredients into bowl.

Cut polenta, onions and butternut squash (if not using pre-diced). Cover baking sheet with tin foil. And, slice cheese into 12 thin strips that are the size of the polenta rounds.

Heat large cast iron skillet or griddle on medium high heat. Spray with vegetable spray. Once heated, add polenta. Flip when each side is browned and crisp. (Be sure that the polenta is browned nicely as it adds a bit of contrast between the other items layered on top of it.)

Meanwhile, heat another pan and add butter. Once melted, saute onions and butternut squash until creamy.

Heat a small skillet and spray with vegetable spray, add corn and toast until corn begins to turn brown.

Once the polenta is browned, remove to baking sheet. When the corn and butternut squah/onion mixture are completed cooking, pre-heat broiler.

The bites are now ready to assemble.

This recipe came from Mediterranean: A Taste of the Sun in Over 150 recipes. This recipe can be simplified by slicing pre-made polenta and using sauce from a jar. The longest part of this recipe was waiting for the polenta to cool. But, making the sauce by scratch was very easy and meant I could flavor it how I wanted it.

Baked Cheese Polenta with Tomato sauce

1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups instant polenta (I used organic corn grits.)
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion (I used several spring onions using only the white parts.)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 14-ounce cans chopped tomatoes (I used organic diced tomatoes with garlic and basil)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
salt and ground black pepper
3 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (I used robusto cheese with some grated parmesean.)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. (I waited to preheat when creating the layers below. No sense having the oven going for over 20 minutes while the sauce is cooking.)

Line an 11 x 7-inch baking pan with plastic wrap. (I used a 9 x 14 inch baking pan.)

Put 4 cups water into a pan and bring to a boil with the salt.

Pour in the polenta in a steady stream and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.

Beat in the paprika and nutmeg… (Not sure what they meant by “beat”, the polenta was pretty stiff at this point.)

…then pour into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Let cool. (Because I used a larger baking pan, the polenta did not spread all the way to the edge.)

Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onion and garlic until soft.

Add the tomatoes, pate and sugar. Season. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Turn out the polenta onto a cutting board and cut into 2-inch squares.

Place half the squares in a greased ovenproof dish.

Spoon on half the tomato sauce, and sprinkle with half the cheese.

Repeat the layers.

Bake for about 25 minutes until golden.

This is a very hearty recipe perfect for a cold day. It’s a nice alternative from a lasagna or ziti if you are faced with feeding a lot of people. As I mentioned above, by using pre-made polenta you can save half of the prep time but just slicing the polenta. I would suggest bringing the pre-made polenta to room temperature before using to save on some of the baking time.