Slow cooked polenta blended with onions and sage is chilled and then baked in gratin form with creamy gruyere cheese. Perfect Comfort Food!
Ingredients
1cupcoarse ground polenta
5cupswater
1large sweet onion, diced
12leavessage, minced
6tablespoonsunsalted butter, 4 for onions 2 for polenta
Salt and pepper
2-3ouncesGruyere or Fontina cheese
Instructions
Dice and mince onions and sage. In a large skillet saute veggies in butter over medium heat until they soften. Season with a pinch of salt and cook for about 6-8 minutes. You don’t want them browned at all, just softened. Remove from heat and set aside when done.
Bring 5 cups of water to a simmer and whisk in polenta in a steady, slow stream. Bring to a simmer and stir until the mixture thickens slightly.
Turn heat down to very low and cook the polenta for 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure it isn’t sticking to the pan. The polenta should be over very low heat so it just bubbles every few seconds.
Once polenta is thick, stir in onions and sage and a knob of butter. Season with salt and pepper.
Line a sheet pan with plastic wrap and pour polenta onto sheet pan. Spread it evenly over the pan.
Refrigerate polenta for about an hour until it’s firmly set.
Butter or grease a 9×13 baking dish and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Break polenta into 1×1 inch chunks and stack them in the baking dish. Overlap some pieces and stagger them so they are uneven. There should be lots of gaps in between polenta pieces.
Add grated cheese to top of polenta.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350, then broil on low until the tops of the gratin are slightly browned, about 5-10 more minutes.