Polenta Lasagna

I tried making polenta for the first time during the week before Thanksgiving. It turned out okay, but nothing to blog about. This week, with all the snow and Adam stressed about finals I've been trying to make plenty of comfort food. Lasagna fits two of the criteria for being comfort food; it's hot and it's cheesy. I also really like that I can fit almost all of the food groups into it in varying amounts depending on what I'm craving.

One aspect of lasagna that is often challenging for me is the noodly part. If I take a no-boil approach I'm often left with undercooked noodles in the middle which eventually soften up when I reheat the leftovers. If I boil them first they stick together before I use them or they rip or break and are generally unwieldy. My solution was to skip the noodles and use polenta. In hindsight, this probably would have worked better if I'd baked the polenta and then sliced it, creating noodle-like segments of polenta. Instead I tried to layer the polenta as it cooled, which resulted in lots of small dumpling-like pieces of polenta. It tasted delicious, but wasn't really layered like a lasagna. I couldn't come up with a better name for it though, so polenta lasagna it is!

Ingredients/Instructions: This has quite a few ingredients, but it's really pretty simple. I arranged the ingredients by group, giving the instructions as you go. Take it one group at a time, otherwise you'll end up with a counter full of ingredients and no where to cook. Also, you could easily prepare the sauce and polenta a day ahead of time, then mix up the cheese and put it all together when you're ready to cook it.

Step 1: Cook these ingredients over medium-high heat, move to large mixing bowl when done.

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 tbsp chili flakes
• 1 tbsp italian seasoning (or 1 tsp basil, oregano, parsley)
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp salt

Step 2: Cook these ingredients until mushrooms start to give up some of their water and zucchini become slightly translucent. Add them to the mixing bowl.

• 3 small zucchini (width of quarter, 4 in long, cut into half circles 1/4 in thick)
• 6 oz mushrooms, chopped same size as zucchini chunks
• 1 tbsp balsalmic
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Step 2.5: Add this to the mixing bowl. Mix. The mixture won't be very saucy, but don't worry. Since we're not using any of the moisture from the sauce to bake noodles we don't need to add as much liquid as if it was real lasagna.

• 1 jar pasta sauce

Step 3: Mix these ingredients in a second mixing bowl. Make sure the egg is well incorporated throughout.

• 1/2 cup mozzarella
• 1/4 cup Parmesan
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp salt
• 15 oz ricotta

Step 4: Bring water and salt to a rolling boil. Add polenta in a thin stream, stirring rapidly. Lower to medium heat and continue stirring until the polenta thickens to roughly the same consistency as mashed potatoes. Remove from heat. (Or, lots of stores sell ready made tubes of polenta that you can slice thinly and use instead if you're not too confident in your own polenta making skills!)

• 1 1/3 cup polenta
• 1 qt water
• 2 tsp salt

Step 5: Layer the ingredients in a large pan. I used my favorite 12-inch Calphalon everyday pan

(no, I didn't pay that price), but I'm sure a 9x13 pan would work.

• Spread 1/3 of the meat, veggie and sauce mix in the bottom of the pan.
• Spread (or drop/smush) 1/2 of the polenta, covering as much of the sauce as possible.
• Carefully layer all of the ricotta mixture from Step 3 across the polenta, again trying to cover the previous layer.
• Add the second 1/3 of the sauce to the pan. (This is 1/2 of what's left in the bowl!)

• Layer the second half of the polenta. If you prepared the polenta just before you used it (like I did) this may be tricky, since the polenta gets stiffer as it cools. Do your best to spread it evenly across the sauce, but don't worry if it isn't perfect.
• Add the last of the sauce across the top.
  

Step 6: Sprinkle these on top.

• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 cup Parmesan

Step 7: Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. The edges of the cheese should be browned and the sauce should be bubbly.

Step 8: Allow the polenta lasagna to rest for at least 10 minutes. This is important to make sure you don't burn your mouth and to let some of the sauce get soaked back up.