About the Recipe
This quick, delicious and nourishing meal feels especially delicious and, can I say "velvety" with the buttery polenta? I love using butter in dishes and it just makes a simple dish luxurious. The reason most people love French cooking is their generous attitude towards butter and even the slight Parisian women don't always so no to a buttery dish, the enjoy and just skip the croissant the next day for something leaner!
This polenta dish is inspired by the wonderful food from Da Costa restaurant in Somerset, where we had the most creamy polenta with some juicy sausages on top.
A vegetarian variant is a tad healthier and also keeps the cost of the dish down to just under £2 per portion.
Ingredients
1/4 Butternut Squash
200 g Polenta (instant)
3 tbsp Butter
2-4 sage leaves
A handful of dried mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes (optional)
A handful of kale
40g pine nut kernels
Salt and pepper to taste, tbsp etxra virgin olive oil
Preparation
Step 1
Pre-heat oven and bake small cubes (2cm) of peeled squash at 200 degrees with some olive oil drizzled over.
Step 2
Make the instant polenta as per packet instructions while the butternut squash is in the oven. Add the butter into the hot polenta.
Step 3
Boil some water. Rip the kale off the stalks (discard the stalks) and boil for 4-5 minutes, drain after. Add some sage to the roasting tin of the squash for the last 2-3 minutes, as well as the nuts.
Step 4
After the squash is fully baked and soft, assemble two plates by plating up polenta, then adding the squash, sage and nuts. Add the kale and mushrooms (if using). Drizzle with more olive oil (or melted butter).