Parmesan-crusted Polenta

NOVEMBER 12th, 2021 — New to polenta, and I experimented with some I got from Arezzo in Tuscany, with dried porcini mushrooms in. I prepared it according to the package directions the first night, which made about 6 cups worth of polenta. For leftovers, they were a bit cold and rubbery, so I first tried making gnocchi, which didn’t quite work out. Did these cakes instead!

So what did you do?
Mix 2 cups polenta (cold and leftover) with 1 egg yolk, 1/2 cup flour, and 2 tbsp grated parmesan.

If you’d like, you can form patties of any shape. (I decided to just pour all the polenta in to fill the entire pan, like a large pancake.)

In a frying pan on medium heat, spray with olive oil and sprinkle with a layer of grated parmesan cheese. Then drop in the polenta. Fry on this side for about 5 minutes, until the cheese on the bottom is nice and crispy. In the meantime, sprinkle cheese on top and flip the polenta and fry on the next side for another 5 minutes until the cheese is crispy.

Top with whatever you like. I sautéed some cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, and red bell peppers, with some pesto.

Serve with extra parmesan, ground black pepper, salt, and/or chili flakes.

Lessons learned?
I didn’t learn any lessons regarding making gnocchi out of polenta. That’s why this happened.