Polenta with Rapini

So easy and yet so good. If you can handle stirring for 10 minutes straight, you can make this. That's really all there is to it. It's one of my favourite make ahead dishes. You can add any vegetable you like, but I love it with rapini (aka broccoli rabe) because rapini is just so mean and cranky. Just kidding...I mean bitter.

It's really tasty warmed up with some spicy tomato sauce on top, but a cold wedge straight out of the fridge is good, too.

Polenta with Rapini

1 cup of organic cornmeal (I like organic 'cause it is untreated with pesticides and non-GMO)

1 head of rapini

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 cup of cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Wash and chop rapini, removing the woody ends of the stalks. In a large frying pan, sautee the rapini in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, just until wilted, but not crisp. Sprinkle with a bit of salt to taste. Set aside.

Grease a pie plate with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and set aside. Bring 2 3/4 cups of water to boil in a medium sized pot. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, combine cornmeal and 1 cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Slowly add cornmeal to the boiling water, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and continue to stir, until mixture is very thick...at least 10 minutes. Add rapini to the cornmeal mixture and immediately pour into the pie plate, spreading as evenly as you can. (The mixture will start to get thicker and harder to work with as it cools.) If you like, brush a bit more oil on the top and bake for about 20 minutes, until the polenta is hot and set. If you add the oil to the top, it will start to get just a bit crispy, too. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. Serve hot or cold.