Polenta ‘Pizza’ With Pancetta and Spinach Recipe (2024)

Spray cooking parchment paper lightly with oil, then put the polenta, so no sticking when done. You can cut into wedges with kitchen scissors and freeze for later.

Very good! Being vegetarian, I substituted garbanzos dressed with olive oil, chile powder and salt and roasted in the oven until crisp.

This recipe doesn't entirely make sense. It tells you to preheat the oven to 450, and then make the polenta and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Also, I had bad sticking problems.

Cooked a few anchovies into the oil before adding spinach. Really added depth to flavor. A tasty dish but be sure to spread polenta thin and cook until good and crispy on top before adding toppings.

i don't think Moses' question was "why put cold polenta in the oven" but more along the lines of "why preheat an oven for more than a hour?".

For step 1 do not heat your oven to 450 when you don't even use it until after an hour or so. There is also no suggestion on how big the pan should be. My polenta turned out entirely too thin, although I thought it was 1/2 inch thick when spreading it on the pan. WAY too thin. Spent so much time on this and was excited. Now it is just a scramble. Next time, please add a size to the pan.

This has become a go-to in my house. Toppings vary from sauteed mushrooms and carmelized onions to kale and garlic to tomato, basil, moz. Love it.

Recipe adapts beautifully to improvised toppings. With a surplus of fresh herbs, I simply melted taleggio cheese on the baked polenta then liberally sprinkled it with a mix of fresh mint, basil and tarragon (torn and lightly oiled). A few pink peppercorns added to the look and taste.

This is dinner deliciousness. I made the polenta a day before so it set up nicely. Mine was about 1/4" thick which meant it crisped up well. I used bacon instead of pancetta because that's what I had on hand. And the piece de la resistance? A fried egg on top for some protein and heft. Next time I'll add some cherry tomatoes to the topping. A simple salad on the side made this a satisfying full meal.

I skipped the first several steps and just sliced a polenta tube into small rounds to make mini pizzas. Way quicker and the kids loved the novelty of the size!

Update. I made an additional batch in case the first was too thin. Both turned out great and lucky me I had lots of polenta squares to freeze for future meals. The first batch was thin, but held up well and was delightfully crispy.

I may have to cook another batch of polenta. Used a 9.5 x 14” sheet pan and I think the polenta is too thin to support the toppings. Need this for a book club get together in two days so I don’t want a last minute stress cook. Uggh.

Double cornmeal base, put parchment paper down

Used the parchment underneath as per another review - worked great for me (didn’t turn the oven on until the base was well chilled though!).I can imagine this works well with lots of toppings, for my first effort I topped with onions, pancetta, slivers of yellow peppers, feta (crumbled as the Gorgonzola), frozen spinach (defrosted and drained first then quickly sautéed), and a little bit of grated Gouda. Drizzled with balsamic glaze once out of the oven. Was very well received!

I made as stated - really good. but also tried using prepared polenta in a tube. Sliced thin, it make "polenta Chips" and with these toppings (or other variations) make "polenta nachos". Really good and crispy. I think any cheese works.

Skip the plastic wrap - uncovered works just a well. I use the polenta made this way under roasted chicken parts (bast w chicken fat when browning)

Such great ideas from the community…thanks! Has anyone used frozen chopped spinach?

One of the best things I have ever cooked. I took a suggestion and sauteed wild mushrooms, rosemary and garlic to add to the spinach. No meat. Thank you Mark Bittman.

The first time I made this, I followed the directions and enjoyed it quite a lot. The second time, I didn’t have time to cool the polenta for an hour, so I just let it sit in the baking pan while I prepared the topping. Still turned out beautifully.

This recipe badly needs to include a reference to the proper size of the cookie sheet or pizza pan. I used 9 x 14, which ended up being the the right size. If I were to make this again, i would be sure to allow plenty if time to let the polenta set in the fridge. One hour was not enough. This recipe has potential, but was just OK in my view. Needed more seasoning. Maybe operator error, who knows?

Made as written just added cubed red bell pepper for color. Incredibly delicious. No sticking w/oiled no-stick sheet pan.

Wonderful! Responding to prior comments about pan size, I used a jelly roll pan 9.5” x 14” and that worked well. I didn’t have enough spinach so I subbed some beet greens instead. All was delicious.

Delicious! This is also a great basic polenta recipe for a variety of toppings. (Obviously, you turn the oven on before baking and not at start of cooking the polenta).

I made this for a fancy dinner party. I cut the polenta into shaped bit size pieces. It was a pain to put on the topping but worth the end result for that situation. I am not a big blue cheese fan but that was the star flavor and just the right proportion for me. Lots of leftover topping (since I made it the way I did) which I tossed with pasta for dinner another night.