Polenta Lasagna is forking easy to prepare!

You start by boiling 9 cups of water with a heaping teaspoon of kosher salt. You add two cups of real polenta (not THAT FORKING INSTANT) and reduce your heat to simmer and stir very often for about 45 minutes. The more you stir the creamier your polenta will come out. Cover the pot with aluminum foil for when your not stirring. No need for cream, butter or cheese this is what you want.

Pour your polenta into lightly oiled pans.

Cover with plastic wrap and let cool and harden over night.

Set your oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly oil your baking dish and by placing the polenta pan up-side down you can drop one sheet into the pan.

Here is where your forking on your own.

You can spread whatever forking toppings you like.

I added a small amount of sauce, some drained cooked spinach with onion and mixed them with one beaten egg and a cup of shredded parmesan cheese.

Added some more parmesan cheese.

Then I added another polenta sheet.

I topped this polenta sheet with provolone, fresh mozzarella, basil, fresh ground sea salt, fresh ground black pepper and some oregano.

Then I added another polenta sheet and squished it down a little and added more provolone, fresh mozzarella,  some home made sauce, heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh ground sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Covered it with foil that was lightly coated with oil and baked at 350 degrees for an hour.

I whipped up a sauce to use with this and 6 cleaned up roasted red peppers and used their juice. Half cup of home made mascarpone that I had in the freezer.

I blended it up and just added,one minced garlic clove, about a teaspoon of kosher salt and a half teaspoon of Aleppo Pepper. I like the fruity and mild heat of Aleppo and think it goes well with the roasted peppers.

 

The sauce has a nice roasted red pepper taste.

 

It came out nicely flavored and seems lighter than a regular lasagna. This is a small cube I portioned them out in sizes not much bigger than my thumb. You can fill your polenta sheets with anything you like.

 

One cup of ricotta cheese has around 428 calories and around 31.93 g fat

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One cup of potatoes is nearly fat free but has around 280 calories.

One cup of kabocha squash is only 40 calories a cup and is fat free.

Gnocchi are little dumpling that are most often made from potato or cheese or a combination of both.

I decided I’d make Kabocha Squash Gnocchi similar to the way I make ricotta gnocchi but I will go even another step healthy and use 1/2 spelt flour to half all-purpose flour.

The recipe is forking simple.

1 cup of cooked kabocha squash blended or mashed well. (from whole squash you cook…you need the rest of squash for sauce)

1/2 cup spelt flour (slightly scant)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (slightly scant)

1 egg (beaten)

about 1 teaspoon kosher salt

pinch saffron

Put on a pot of water to boil with a tablespoon or so of kosher salt. Combine ingredients and insert in a pastry bag with an open end. Squeeze out mixture from bag into the boiling water and break the gnocchi off with your finger.

When the gnocchi float to the top let them cook a few minutes and then remove them with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl and drizzle lightly with extra virgin olive oil to prevent sticking.

When I went to forking photo my water was a little too hot and almost forking boiled over but I turned it down in time.

I let my water reduce a little and I added some vegetable base to the water and a pinch of saffron. Next I added the rest of the pureed kabocha squash to the liquid to thicken it a little. I also added one shredded carrot.

 

This soup-like sauce is good and does have a natural creamy texture.  I thought I’d make it more interesting with other flavors and textures. The additions were, apple, onion, garlic, almonds and roasted sweet tomatoes.

If you want a richer “Weekend” version add about 2 Tablespoons of butter and a splash of cream. You might want to reduce slightly further.

Set oven to 350 roast.

I roasted up everything on a slightly oiled pan being careful not to burn the almonds pushing the onions and apples over them.

1/4 cup lightly crushed almonds.

One apple small chopped.

About 1/4 sweet onion small chopped,

One garlic clove minced.

Fresh ground sea salt, fresh ground black pepper and I

lightly sprayed them all on one pan with extra virgin olive oil.

I took the pan out in 14 minutes.

Added this mixture to my soup like sauce and poured some over the gnocchi.

I roasted a few tiny sweet tomatoes. The tomatoes are the perfect accent for this dish and make the flavors pop.