Riverside Ovens Test Kitchen:
Polenta with Fontina
and Roasted Vegetables

"What can be said about vegetables as a form of gastronomical entertainment is best said simply, since once past the basic behavior, all such recipes depend on you and what you need.
Almost all vegetables are good, although there is some doubt still about parsnips (which I share). [I am no longer doubtful. I know. And rutabaga has joined the exclusive group]."
      – MFK Fisher, from "How to Be Content with Vegetable Love"









There is a recipe for chicken pot pie that I have made now for over a decade – it is a family favorite and, once mastered, has become a repository of creativity in the kitchen. At its base it is a vegetable stew that is then placed inside its doughy shell (several ways to make this as well, but the refrigerated pie crust rolls work just fine in a hurry). The vegetables in this meal have rotated over the years depending on the visual feedback of family members. The time that I tried diced beets didn't bring much of a positive response; the flavor, as we might all agree, brings a very exclusive, earthy fabric that is difficult to match. But we then remember, as are swirling the beets around in the pot, that there is the domination of the red color dye that turns everything that makes contact with the beet a goopy red. The earthy flavors leech onto the innocent carrot. The green bean, already a neutral creature, disappears in to the redness.  No more beets, thank you.  The parsnip, however, is always welcome in moderation to the pot pie. Like the beet, the parsnip is the earth itself, and we sense, when we get that good square bite, that we are plucking it right from the ground and it adds a sort of legitimacy of interest to the chicken pot pie gravy...and it is not red. I have known contentment with the parsnip and rutabega.

The polenta and roasted vegetables dish could use some similar differentiation in pickings.  As we scan the ingredient components on the back of the polenta package, we see virtual zeros right down the line until fiber, of which there is some.  This is part of the allure of polenta: its what you put on top that

counts.  The recipe itself calls for "anything your heart desires," but suggests eggplant, summer squash, red onions, zucchini, bell pepper, then to be topped with parmesan and fontina cheese. In other words, the polenta is there as a comforting stabilizer so have fun with your chosen concoction above.  I decided that besides eggplant, summer squash, zucchini (I considered parsnip, but skipped it in this application), I wanted to cover the porridge with something bright and warm. I remembered a simple recipe for roasted tomato sauce out of Alice Waters' little recipe book called My Pantry, and so placed three and a half pounds of vine tomatoes into a baking dish with olive oil, several small sweet

peppers and some diced basil, let it bake for 45 minutes then placed it all in a blender for chosen texture. This would be my comfort cover over the top of the vegetables, over the top of the polenta, a sort of garden stew.

Polenta takes three minutes to boil. Water is just fine, but I could easily see adding any number of friends to the polenta for richness, like a dash or two of buttermilk towards the end of the congealing stage, a vegetable stock for some of the water, fresh herbs and a pinch of spice. I reused the same

baking pan that I had cooked the tomatoes in for the diced vegetables; a layer of oil, onion and tomato peel remained on the bottom as a base fond and the eventual roasted vegetables carried the tinge of flavor with it to the end.  I found that polenta, if not eaten immediately in its porridge state, will harden and become less inviting. At its initial cooked state, though, it can be swirled and mixed with sauce in a similar way that mashed potatoes can with gravy. Here, the acid of the tomato sauce and saltiness of the parmesan was nicely tamed by the natural neutral flavors of eggplant and summer squash, and combined nicely with the very neutral flavor of the polenta.  Comfort food at its best.  Warm, rich, layered texture, easy digestion, a 'meatless monday' option without even thinking about it.