Polenta with Mushrooms and Tomatoes

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

• 1/2 cup polenta (fine cornmeal, for those who always ask ;-)
• 1+1/2 cup water
• 8 large mushrooms (I used "gourmet" brown button mushrooms)
• 10 sun-dried tomato slices, dry packed (...used Trader Joe''s s.d. Romas)
• hot chile pepper to taste
• balsamic vinegar

Directions:

Basic Polenta:

Boil the water then drizzle the polenta into the swirling water. Mix in the pepper cover and simmer for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour mixture into a loaf pan (glass??) and let cool off.

Recipe:

Bake basic polenta in oven at 425(F) for 20-30 minutes, turning once. Chop mushrooms. Preheat a small frying pan using a medium flame, add balsamic. Vinegar as if it was oil (I am more generous with it than with oil), add mushrooms, stir, cover, and reduce flame to low for 10-15 minutes. Shake pan occasionally to mix. steam the sun dried tomatoes for around 5 minutes to rehydrate them chop sun dried tomatoes and add to mushrooms. Add water or balsamic vinegar if necessary (the mushrooms release alot of liquid in cooking.) Pour the "sauce" over the polenta and serve.

The tomato/mushroom mixture is not really a sauce - by the time it''s done there is little or no liquid left. Perhaps an adventurous person can try to work on that (add veg. stock & thickener?), it may be better as is, though.

I created this the other night and it tasted great. As usual, this is a very simple recipe. I found the the textures and taste of the three main ingredients to be very complimentary.

I prepared the polenta at the beginning of the week and refridgerated it until making the rest of the recipe. The basic polenta should keep for a week with no problem.

The recipe is for two servings (great for single folk - I never prepare less than two servings) but should scale well. I would not consider the servings a full main dish but it would work well together with servings of beans or couscous, for example.