Baked white polenta with cheese and red radicchio - Polenta bianca pasticciata con fontina e radicchio rosso - Zapečena bijela palenta sa sirom i crvenim radićem

I love to prepare tasty dishes with poor ingredients or leftovers, because “less is more”, more attention, more care, more pure flavours…and at the end more inventiveness and satisfaction!

This dish is one of my “empty fridge” recipe. When I cook a lot and leftovers are overflowing the fridge I need to invent something new to use all these small pieces of cheese, or little quantities of fresh or cooked vegetables, or other stuff that are waiting patiently to get of from the fridge.

With just a few ingredients I have prepared this really flavourful dish, I don’t even use a lot of spices, I just leave it as natural as possible. And most of all I have prepared a perfect meal in very short time.

Last week I have cooked some braised meat with white polenta, of course you can’t do the exact quantity of polenta, I never do it. No worries, to recycle the leftovers you just need some cheese, or sauce and vegetables and that’s it! Assemble all together the way you like it most!

Try to do it yourself, I’m sure you will love it!

BAKED WHITE POLENTA WITH CHEESE AND RED RADICCHIO

(the quantity depend of leftover polenta, about 150gr of polenta flour will be enough for 2 people)

cooked white polenta (I’ve used the instant polenta)

cheese that melts well (leftovers you have in the fridge)

red radicchio

extra virgin olive oil

salt

white vine

Wash red radicchio and cut it into stripes. Sauté radicchio with little olive oil. Add salt and when is half cooked add white vine to allow to the vegetable to keep its red colour. Cut cheese into small pieces and polenta into slices 0,5 cm thick.

Put some oil in the baking tray, arrange slices of polenta to cover the bottom of the baking tray, add radicchio and at the end the cheese. Make 3 or 4 equal layers and bake at 180-200°C until the cheese  melt and become golden brown (about 20 minutes).

POLENTA BIANCA PASTICCIATA CON FONTINA E RADICCHIO ROSSO

(la quantità dipende dalla quantità della polenta avanzata, circa 150gr di farina di polenta cruda basterà per 2 persone)

polenta bianca già cotta (ho usato la polenta bianca istantanea)

formaggio fontina (o altro formaggio avanzato) quanto basta

radicchio rosso

olio extravergine di oliva

sale

vino bianco

Lavare il radicchio e tagliarlo a strisce. Farlo saltare con poco olio di oliva. Salarlo e a metà cottura aggiungere del vino bianco per conservare il colore rosso della verdura. Tagliare il formaggio a piccoli pezzi e la polenta a fette spesse circa 0,5 cm.

Oliare il fondo della teglia e sistemare sul fondo le fette di polenta, poi il radicchio e coprire con il formaggio. Fare 3 o 4 strati uguali, infornare a 180-200°C gradi fino a quando il formaggio si fonderà e diventerà dorato (ci vorranno circa 20 minuti).

ZAPEČENA BIJELA PALENTA SA SIROM I CRVENIM RADIĆEM

(količina ovisi o količini palente koja vam je ostala, oko 150gr sirovog brašna za palentu je dovoljno za 2 osobe)

bijela palenta kuhana (upotrijebila sam instant palentu)

sira koji se lako topi (bilo koji vam je ostao u hladnjaku) koliko treba

crveni radić

ekstradjevičansko maslinovo ulje

sol

bijelo vino

Oprati radić i narezati ga na trake. Dinstati na malo maslinovog ulja. Posoliti i kada je na pola kuhan podliti s malo vina da bi ostao crven. Narezati sir komadiće, a palentu na fete debele oko 0,5 cm.

Pouljiti dno posude za pečenje, prekriti dno fetama palente, na nju staviti radić i na kraju sir. Složiti 3 ili 4 jednaka sloja i zapeći u pećnici na 180-200°C da se sir otopi i da površina porumeni (treba peći oko 20 minuta).