Adventures with polenta

I have a problem. The problem is this: I go to the grocery store and stock up on yummy food, only to leave it rotting in the refrigerator. I am a horrible roommate like that. At any rate, I have a tube of polenta that I purchased from my local Trader Joe’s, that I desperately need to finish. Problem is, I’ve never eaten polenta, let alone prepared it in any meal. I found this recipe for a polenta, goat cheese and mushroom tart on Epicurious, and I’m hoping that I’m able to make something half-way decent. Having never made anything off of Epicurious, I figured this ought to be doubly adventurous.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 pound soft mild goat cheese from a log or disk
  • 2 large eggs, beaten lightly
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon fresh small thyme sprigs
  • 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

The recipe also has ingredients to make polenta and a crust for the tart, but I’ve opted to cheat by using my Trader Joe’s polenta and some ready-made pie crust that has also been sitting in my fridge for a while. I’m a girl on the go, I don’t have time to be mucking around with pie crust! What is this, the 1950s?

I sautee the mushrooms, put them in mah ready-made pie-crust. I pop the pie crust/mushrooms into the oven for them to get all toasty while I mix the rest of the ingredients together. I have 20 minutes to do the following:

  • Sautee the polenta in olive oil
  • Mix the polenta, sour cream, and butter. I totally forget to thaw the butter and end up zapping it in the microwave
  • Slice up the goat cheese into manageable chunks. (I totally didn’t do this. I simply cut the corner of the cheese packaging and squeezed the goat cheese like you would for frosting a cake. WHAT UP. The other way woulda taken FOREVER)
  • Mix in salt, egg, and a whole table spoon of thyme. I thought this was WAAAY too much thyme, but my roommate reassured me I was fine.

After doing all this, I have two minutes to spare, so I make myself a rootbeer float.

The timer goes off, and my PIE CRUST HAS DEFLATED! Ugh. I pour the mixture in, and put it in the oven for 35 minutes.

The roommate and I watch Back to the Future III. Food finishes, and it is tasty, but saltier than I’d imagined. Next time I will be adding less salt, and more savory herbs. On the whole, not bad for my first foray into polenta!