Two years ago, for my BIG birthday, my friends took me to New York City ... yes, I have fabulous friends....and while there we had lunch at Balthazar's on Spring Street in Soho - a wonderful place to "see and be seen".....I remember everything from that meal - the food was so good - especially the polenta. Mari gave me the cookbook from Balthazar's as a b-day gift and I have used it many, many times - as the sticky pages can attest. Polenta is my favorite comfort-food - and this polenta, made with mascarpone and Parmesan cheese just makes it the best ever!
So, with my Balthazar recipe in hand, I decided to do something a little different.....stuffed tomatoes sounded good - roasted on the outside, steaming hot on the inside...with the juice from the tomato just enough to keep the polenta moist and soft.
Don't get me wrong - this polenta can stand on it's own and really needs no other accompaniment, but I had all these tomatoes and needed something to do with them!
Scoop out the insides of the tomatoes, saving for use later (I will use them in my spaghetti sauce on Christmas day - we always have spaghetti on Christmas!) I also cut a very tiny piece off the bottom of the tomato so they will sit straight in the pan.
Let the tomatoes sit upside down for 10 minutes to drain, then invert them, put in a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish and stuff with polenta.
Tomatoes Stuffed with Mascarpone-Parmesan Polenta - adapted from The Balthazar Cookbook
2 cups chicken stock or broth
2 cups whole milk
1 cups half-and-half
2 cups dry cornmeal polenta
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut in pieces
1 cup mascarpone
1/2 pound grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 cup)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
olive oil to drizzle
16 tomatoes, tops sliced off, insides scooped out
Bring the stock to a boil in a saucepan. Keep warm over a medium flame.
In a medium saucepan, bring the milk and half-and-half to a foamy simmer. Reduce the flame to medium and add the polenta to the foaming milk mixture, stirring contiuously. When the mixture begins to thicken, begin adding the hot stock, 1/2 cup at a time. As with risotto, let the stock absorb completely before adding the next 1/2 cup, stirring all the while.
When all of the stock as been added, reduce the flame to low and add the butter, mascarpone, and Parmesan, stirring well to blend. If the consistency overall is too thick, add a bit of milk or stock. Stir in the salt and pepper.
Carefully fill the scooped-out tomatoes with the polenta, mounding a little on top. Drizzle olive oil over the tops and bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes, or until tomatoes are soft on the outside and polenta is lightly browned on top. (Cover with foil if tops are getting too browned.)
Serve immediately. Makes 16 stuffed tomatoes. If just making the polenta and not stuffing the tomatoes, you will get 6 generous servings. You can serve polenta in many different ways...I also like to spread the soft polenta in a buttered casserole dish or sheet pan and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Then I cut 3-inch circles from the cooled pan and pan fry the polenta in 2 tablespoons of oil - they make great little "rounds."
