Polenta Pizzas - Crazy cheap dinner that is crazy delish!

Here's to one of the funnest & cheapest recipes i've come up with in all of my endeavors. Polenta pizzas. A good friend of mine is a Chef, a super awesome one, and introduced me to polenta! It was always one of those things I was always apprehensive to try, and never imagined making it at home, but once I picked up my 5 lb bag for less than 5 bucks, I knew i'd be making a load of meals!

You first want to start with all ingredients depicted; all 7 of them! (Cheese, Marinara Sauce, Cornmeal, Salt, Water, Olives & Olive Oil)

Here's how to make the Polenta; for every 1 3/4 cups of Polenta you need 6 cups of boiling water that has 2 tsp of salt. This is the proportion I use to make dinner & lunch for my husband the next day. It's deceivingly a ton of Polenta. So let's say you go with the proportions I stated above, here's what you should do:

Get 6 cups of h20 boiling, add 2 tbsp of salt, and slowly... I repeat slowly mix in the polenta. My friend said that if you were to add it all, you'd get a big funky ball of cornmeal, so I listened to him & so should you. 







If you run into lumps like this, which is pretty common on my end, don't fret because it's easy to fix & the more you make Polenta the easier it gets! Just grab your immersion blender, and for a couple minutes blend into the smooth mixture you intended to achieve.

Ah, there we go! Look at that, nice & smooth. As if it never happened!

Reduce your heat to simmer Polenta for around, 10 - 15 minutes. Throw in half a cup of chopped olives, a little cheese, and whatever else you normally like on top of your pizza (get creative!) Then, place in an elongated glass dish & let cool for around 1 hr 45 minutes (or until it's set into a solid) in the fridge. This stuff is so amazingly simple to handle once it sets right!

I personally prefer cubes, but one time to add character to the plate I used a round cookie cutter to have circles! Then, in a side sauce pan, heat about 3/4 of a cup of any kind of pasta sauce. I'll grab my store purchased stuff for this one, because making a home made sauce here isn't necessarily cheaper. Cut the polenta into cubes/squares, grill for a few minutes. Then, spread the marinara over your polenta slices, and sprinkle cheese. Mmm!

After making this my way, I know you'll find your own variations you absolutely love!

I like to serve a salad with this!

Want some other ideas for when you buy the big bag of Cornmeal?
1. Homemade baked or friend Corndogs
2. Hush Puppies
3. Use as a coat - on things you'll fry like fish
4. Cornmeal pizza crust
5. Polenta soup, garnished with freshly grated parm, tomato slices & basil - mmm!
6. Cornbread - my fav to make is Mexi style w/ onions, peppers & corn!
7. Morning muffins w/ berries
& it definitely doesn't end there! See you guys soon! - BCB