Baked Polenta Layered with Tomato, Fontina, and Gorgonzola
- 1 1/2 to 2 pounds meaty tomatoes or canned whole tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 basil leaves or a good pinch dried basil
- 2 branches parsley
- 1/2 small yellow onion, finely diced
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- Sugar, if necessary
- Salt and pepper
- 1 1/2 cups coarse cornmeal
- 8 ounces Fontina cheese, thinly sliced
- 5 ounces Gorgonzola cheese
- Fresh herbs: oregano or marjoram, basil, chopped, for garnish
- Make a simple tomato sauce.
- Warm the olive oil with the bay leaf, basil, parsley, onion, and garlic, and cook slowly for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, raise the heat to medium high, and cook until they are quite soft and broken apart, about 15 minutes.
- Pass them through a food mill; then return the sauce to the pan, and simmer until quite thick.
- If needed, add a pinch or two of sugar to balance the acidity, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- This should make 1 1/2 cups.
- While the sauce is cooking, bring 4 1/2 cups water to a boil and add 1 1/2 teaspoons salt.
- Whisk in the cornmeal in a stream so that lumps don't form, and when it has all been added, switch to a wooden spoon, lower the heat, and stir for 15 minutes.
- Pour it into a loaf pan or a 9-by-12-inch baking dish, and set it aside to cool.
- When it is thoroughly cool and firm, turn it out and slice it into pieces about 1/2 inch thick and about 3 inches long.
- If a loaf pan was used, cut the pieces again, diagonally.
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Lightly butter a gratin dish, and spread about 1 cup of the tomato sauce over the bottom.
- Arrange the polenta and the slices of Fontina in overlapping layers.
- Carefully spoon the remaining tomato sauce over the layers in a decorative way, leaving bands of red sauce between the yellow polenta and cheese.
- Crumble Gorgonzola over the top, pepper generously, and bake the gratin, uncovered, for 25 to 35 minutes.
- The cheese will melt into the tomato, making a sauce to spoon over the polenta.
- Garnish with the fresh herbs.
tomatoes, olive oil, bay leaf, basil, parsley, yellow onion, clove garlic, sugar, salt, coarse cornmeal, cheese, gorgonzola cheese, fresh herbs
Taken from www.cookstr.com/recipes/baked-polenta-layered-with-tomato-fontina-and-gorgonzola (may not work)