Polenta Pie with Puttanesca Sauce

Ingredients

1.25 litres water

2 tsp salt

250g polenta

75g parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

50g butter

For the Puttanesca Sauce

75ml olive oil

2 cloves garlic

2 tiny chillies

800g canned tomatoes, mashed

1 tablespoon capers, drained

1 tsp dried oregano

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Roughly 10 black olives

Bring the water to the boil in a large, wide saucepan.

Add the salt, then sprinkle in the polenta, a handful at a time letting it fall through your fingers from a height.

Stir continuously, using a wooden spoon.

If you add the polenta too fast, it will form lumps (if this happens, fish them out because they will not break down during cooking).

Once all the polenta is added, turn the heat down low and cook, giving 3-4 good stirs every 20secounds or so, for 25 minutes.

Spread it out 1cm thick on a tray and leave to cool.

Put the olive oil in a heavy based saucepan, set it over a medium heat and drop in the garlic.

Sauté the garlic until it turns a pale biscuit colour, then stir in the chillies.

Carefully tip in the tomatoes, capers, oregano, a few large pinches of salt and black pepper.

Check the seasoning once sauce is cooked.

Bring the sauce to the boil, lower the heat and cook gently, string occasionally, for 25-30 minutes or until the tomatoes are pulpy.

Add the olives.

Cut the polenta into large diamond shapes.

Lightly butter a shallow oven proof dish, about 23cm in diameter, and put in a layer of slightly overlapping polenta shapes.

Pour over the sauce and sprinkle with less the half the parmesan cheese.

Form another layer of polenta shapes on the top, again slightly overlapping, and sprinkle on the rest of the cheese.

Melt the butter and drizzle a little over each peace of polenta.

The polenta pie can be prepared several hours in advance to this point. Cover with glad wrap and refrigerate, but bring to room temperature before baking.

Bake in an oven preheated to 220°C and allow the pie to heat through and brown on top (about 30 minutes)

Serve hot, with extra grated parmesan cheese.

As a side I used large helpings of spinach and broccoli.

By Julie Biuso’s Italian Cooking