Polenta Gratin

Pane-Bistecca

We’ve just spent a few days in Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, and I’ve been reminiscing about my childhood. Locarno is just over an hour’s drive from where my mother was born and we used to spend our October vacations in Lugano. I collected chestnuts and mushrooms in the woods there as a child and took them to the old woman on the edge of the village to identify the mushrooms. She would then cook polenta with mushrooms or risotto in a large copper kettle over the fire.

My mother made this wonderful polenta, which had a lot of cheese in it so that it pulled strings like fondue. Homemade polenta like this is simply wonderful!

Unfortunately, polenta needs a lot of attention. You have to stir it constantly, otherwise it will spit and your kitchen will look like it’s been freshly painted.

That’s why the supermarkets have these polenta rolls, for the lazy housewives. I only use them when I don’t have time to cook! I usually make enough polenta myself to make a gratin from the leftovers.

Prep time

15 min

Cooking time

40 min

Portions

Total time

55 min

Ingredients

1 Polenta Roll approx. 250 g or leftover Polenta (you can form freshly cooked polenta in a cling-foil together to a roll and keep it in the fridge)
300 g Tomato Sauce
2 cloves of Garlic, chopped
1 small Onion, chopped
150 g diced Bacon (or Sausage)
Salt and Pepper
Paprika
Rosemary
Oregano
30 g grated Parmesan

Instructions

Step 1

Grease a gratin dish. Cut the polenta into slices and put them into the dish.

Step 2

For the sauce fry the bacon, chopped onion and chopped garlic in a pan until crisp. Add the tomato sauce, season well and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Step 3

Pour the sauce over the polenta, sprinkle with the grated Parmesan and bake in the oven at 200 C for 20 minutes. Serve hot!

Notes

Serve with fried Sausages (Luganega)! Here are more Polenta Recipes!

Polenta Gratin