lorena's grilled polenta recipe

Our grilled polenta with roasted tomatoes, courgette ribbons and salsa verde was a favourite at July’s DINE supper club! Lorena, our Head of Community Café, shares her special recipe with us so you can make the dish at home.

Polenta is a northern Italian dish made of coarsely ground corn, with a rich yellow colour and a slightly sweet flavour. In this recipe, you’ll be bumping the polenta up a notch by grilling it - giving it a wonderfully crispy exterior and a creamy and buttery interior. Served alongside rosemary-infused roasted tomatoes, tangy courgette ribbons and a bold salsa verde, this light dish is perfect for a summer evening.

Recipe serves four hungry people!

For the polenta:

Ingredients

  • 250g Corn flour

  • 1l Water

  • ½ table spoon Coarse salt

 Method

  1. Add the water and salt to a saucepan.

  2. Once the water boils, sprinkle the corn flour in the water while rapidly stirring with a wooden spoon.

  3. Continue stirring and bring back to the boil before lowering the flame to a minimum.

  4. Cook for another 50 minutes on a low flame. 

  5. Add freshly chopped rosemary and stir well.

    (if you are short of time, you can use instant polenta instead. It’s ready in 5 minutes!)

  6. Once the polenta is ready, spread it into a small shallow baking dish and leave to cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes to set.

  7. Cut the polenta into portions and grill it (or pan fry it) until the top is browning slightly.

For the tomatoes:

Ingredients

  • 500g cherry tomatoes

  • Olive oil

  • Salt

  • Fresh rosemary

 Method

  1. Place the cherry tomatoes in a roasting tin. Coat them in salt and olive oil.  And please note, there’s never enough olive oil!

  2. Add few rosemary sprigs to flavor the tomato juice (you’re going to need it).

  3. Cook in the oven at 180°C for 20/25 minutes, till they start blistering and are tender.

For the courgettes:

Ingredients

  • 4 courgettes

  • 2 lemons

  • Olive oil

  • Salt and pepper

Method

  1. With a vegetable peeler, slice the courgettes creating long ribbons.

  2. Place the ribbons into a shallow dish.

  3. Whisk the olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper, drizzle over the courgette ribbons and leave to marinate.

For the salsa verde:

Ingredients

  • 75 grams flat-leaf parsley

  • 60g capers

  • 3 clove garlic

  • 180g extra virgin olive oil

  • 4.5g salt

Method 

  1. Blend all the ingredient in a food processor. Job done!


Plating

  1. Place a scoop of salsa verde on a plate. Stack the grilled polenta on top. Stack the tomatoes on the polenta.

  2. Add a side of corgette ribbons.

  3. Drizzle everything with more salsa verde.

We hope you enjoy the dish! Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments and to share any photos on Instagram - we love to see your creations. Tag us at @the_bridge_london.

Amy RussellComment