Polenta

I'm a transplanted Southern girl, and I love my grits. But, I've never actually tried polenta before. I hear it's the same thing, but it honestly has never appealed to me. At least, not until I saw Amanda and Tyler's Smooth and Dreamy Baked Polenta.

It looked delicious, and I guess it stuck in my mind because when I stopped for lettuce at the Co-op Thursday night, I also bought some pre-cooked polenta and pre-made roasted red bell pepper sauce. (I've been very lazy this week.)

So tonight, we needed something light for dinner, and I decided to try out the polenta.

Polenta With Roasted Red Bell Pepper Pesto

pre-cooked garlic basil polenta

pre-made roasted red bell pepper pesto

grated parmesian cheese

walnut oil

Slice off a few pieces round pieces of polenta. Brown in pan with walnut oil. Turn once after a couple of minutes. Add parmesian cheese to top of each polenta slice. Simmer pesto in separate pan, then pour pesto over each slice.

I have to admit, I didn't realize I was buying pesto. I don't care for pine nuts, but the sauce was good. This was an easy dish that could be modified in a ton of different ways and eaten for breakfast as well as dinner. I definitely think I'll try polenta again, but maybe next time I'll skip the pesto.