Polenta Lasagna

The wonders of a rainy weekend

PJ days, dress making, movie watching and lots of cooking

Remember that kale I showed you?

Well, I decided to put it to good use in a polenta lasagna

At Lily's we traditionally made it vegetarian with

three cheeses, spinach or swiss chard and homemade tomato sauce

The recipe is in the revised Lily's Cafe Cookbook

Yesterday I made it a bit differently with

sautéed kale, Bilinski's chicken sausage, and this goat's milk "ricotta"

which I think was just a weirdly set greek style yogurt, but it worked

wonderfully and gave the dish a nice little lift

I thought I'd share the recipe in case it's raining where you are

and you are inspired to cook in your pajamas

Polenta:

Bring 5 cups of cold water and 1 scant T of kosher salt to a boil

I added loads of chives from my garden to the water and some chopped parsley

Once it boils, whisk in 1-1/2 cups good quality polenta corn meal

Turn your heat to med low and continue whisking until a nice thick mush has formed

At this point, I turn the heat to low, and leave it to cook for about 20 minutes, stirring often

This makes the polenta extra creamy and delicious

When it is just about done I stir in 1 T of unsalted butter for good measure

you can add cheese here too, but since I was going to use dairy in the lasagna I left it out

While the polenta is cooking, slice up 4 chicken sausages if you choose to use them

and sauté them in a large pan with a bit of olive oil to release their juices and

caramelize them a bit.

Remove from the pan and set aside

In that same pan add a bit more oil and 2 cloves of chopped garlic

cook for 30 seconds

 add your kale (which has been washed and relieved of any thick center stems)

a bit of salt to taste, some red pepper flakes and a pinch of oregano

sauté until tender - this didn't take much since my kale was young and sweet

Honestly, I would choose swiss chard for the green in the summer for just that reason

Putting it all together:

Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking pan and spread half of the still hot polenta

in a layer on the bottom

Cover this with 1 cup of your favorite marinara sauce

dot with 1 cup of ricotta cheese

spread half of the greens on this

then half the sausage

cover with grated parmesan

-at Lily's we would also use fontina or jack or mozzarella etc.

feel free to go crazy-

Spread remaining polenta on top of this and repeat the layers one more time

I dot the top with a bit of tomato sauce at the end if I have some left over

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes, turning once

Let stand for 15 minutes to set before serving

Enjoy!