Vegetables with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce and Polenta

I made my own polenta rather than going for the instant stuff (and definitely not the premade stuff). The veggies were pretty basic, and the sauce was SPECTACULAR. I will totally use that again...for pasta sauce, sandwich spread, whatever!

This recipe served the three of us. I'm going to break it down into its three parts.



Polenta

3 cups stock or water
1 tsp butter
1 cup coarse cornmeal (I used medium grind because that's what I had, and it worked fine)
2/3 cup grated parmesan (divided in 2)
Dash of cayenne

In a saucepan, bring stock or water to boil. Add butter and allow to melt. Slowly pour in cornmeal, whisking to keep it from clumping together. Turn heat down to low, cover, and stir every couple of minutes to keep it from clumping or burning to the bottom of the pan. This will take about 35 minutes to thicken. Stir in 1/3 cup parmesan and the cayenne, and taste for seasoning. If you're using water, you may need to add salt.

Pour into a lightly creased cast iron skillet, or 9" pie pan, and set aside to cool for about 15 minutes.

Once the veggies (the next step) come out, top the cooled polenta with the final 1/3 cup parmesan and place under broiler about 15 minutes or until top is golden brown.

If you like your polenta loose, serve it up immediately. If you like it a little more like a cake, let it sit 20 minutes or so to set.

Vegetables

Juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic
1 tblsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 tblsp chopped fresh thyme
10 small asparagus stalks, ends trimmed
4 green onions, trimmed
2 small Chinese eggplants, cut into 1/3" half circles
1 small yellow squash or zucchini, cut into 1/3" half circles
10 cherry tomatoes

Preheat broiler and set the rack to about 6" from the top. Line baking sheet with foil.

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Add the vegetables and toss to coat. Arrange on baking sheet in one layer and pop into oven for 5-10 minutes (or more) until you start to see colour on the vegetables.

Flip the veggies and roast for an additional 5-10 minutes, remove from oven and let cool.

(At this point you'd toss the polenta into the oven)

Sauce

1 jar of roasted red peppers, drained
1/3 cup broth
1 large clove garlic
A few leaves of fresh basil
1 tblsp balsamic vinegar

Throw all the ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend up. My red peppers had bonus!garlic so I threw those in, as well as the raw garlic. I love garlic!

Putting it Together

Top a slice of polenta with some roasted veggies and smother with sauce. I garnished with a bit more fresh basil and a few black olives.

Local Asparagus, Arugula and Pesto Pasta

Last night I tried a new pasta recipe. I had some local asparagus that I picked up at Nature's Corner on Seacliff Drive in Leamington, and I was just itching to do something different with it. I saw this recipe while zipping around on the web, and thought it sounded perfect!

I made a few adjustments to the recipe, for instance, instead of making fresh pesto (which I love), I used up some jarred tomato pesto that I had leftover from the mushroom and leek pizza I made last week. I added some basil from our garden and grated in a clove of garlic to suit my taste.

I had 2 partially used boxes of whole wheat penne. How annoying! So I used what was left in both boxes and made some space in my cupboard (win!).

I had to buy some arugula, and unfortunately it wasn't available loose (so I couldn't just buy a handful or so), but I plan to make a steak salad this week so I can mix what's left into the baby greens I have on hand.

I am a fan of asparagus, and it's good for you too (with the whole having folate and vitamin K) but I wish I could say the same for arugula. I don't HATE it, I just don't love it. It's a great little leaf though, full of calcium, iron, and vitamins A, C and K, so if I can find a way to use it, I do.

So here's what I did:

Cut the asparagus into 1" pieces and steamed it barely tender. In another pot, I cooked the pasta (though I'm sure I could have just popped the asparagus in the pasta water as it would have floated and I could have fished it out when it was done).

In a bowl I plopped a few tablespoons of jarred tomato pesto (President's Choice brand in this case), chopped up a few basil leaves, and grated in a small clove of garlic.

I drained the pasta, threw it back in the pot with the pesto and the asparagus, tossed in a couple of handfuls of arugula and stirred to combine. Drizzled on a touch of olive oil to loosen the sauce up a bit as well. It didn't need salt (probably because the pesto was perfectly seasoned) but I did add some fresh ground pepper.

I had a couple of herbed foccacia rolls in the fridge from a grilled veggie sandwich I made last week, so I sliced them, brushed them with olive oil, and toasted them in the oven.

The pasta and toasts were topped with a bit of freshly grated parmesan, and we dug in.



The Verdict?

  I liked it. It had good, balanced flavours.

Quinn ate it right up. That surprised me as the arugula is bitter. He did, however, leave the asparagus bits. Probably didn't like the consistancy.

Don liked the flavours, but he prefers his pasta to be "saucy", so it wasn't to his liking.

I'll probably keep the recipe as an occasional meal, but it won't go into "The Rotation"