Eggplant and Polenta Stacks with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Carrying on the Sunday tradition of a homemade red-sauce inspired dish (OK perhaps not a tradition, but a common occurance, if you will), Derek and I came up with a creative use of several ingredients that we had on hand, most prominently, the big, beautiful heirloom tomatoes that Derek used to make his homemade sauce. We have typically been using quality canned tomatoes for the sauce - not this time! With a mixture of yellow, orange, and red-hued tomatoes, the sauce came out a much lighter color than normal. Another result of the fresh tomato usage was the slight runniness of the sauce. Derek added a bit of chicken broth to the sauce which probably wasn't the best move. It tasted fabulous but wasn't exactly the texture quality that we had achieved in some previous batches. Still, no complaints.

The sauce was used for a recipe that was, for the most part, a non-recipe creation of on hand ingredients.

Eggplant and Polenta Stacks with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Eggplant
1 globe eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
salt
pepper
EVOO
balsamic vinegar
vegetable broth

For the eggplant, generously salt the eggplant slices and place in a colander for about 30 minutes to allow the eggplant to "sweat" - this decreases any bitterness that the eggplant may have. Rinse the eggplant and pat dry.

Heat a grill (we used a stove-top grill pan - Emeril's brand). Spray (or drizzle) EVOO over the eggplant slices to lightly coat both sides. Sprinkle with pepper (salt if necessary but there is likely salt already incorporated into the eggplant from the sweating session). Place on a hot grill and cook about 3-4 minutes. Drizzle top with balsamic vinegar while grilling. I also added some chicken broth (it's what I had on hand - though if wanting to go completely vegetarian, use vegetable broth, that's probably ideal) on the eggplant slices to make sure that they retain their moisture. After 3-4 minutes, flip to the other side and add more balsamic vinegar and broth. Remove from the grill once the slices are tender but not yet falling apart.

Polenta
1/2 cup polenta
2 cups water
1 T. butter
1/4 cup grated pecorino cheese
pepper
salt

Cook polenta according to package directions. Remove from heat and stir in butter and cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Divide into two greased ramekins and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Remove from ramekins (they should slide right out). Once the polenta is slightly cooled, slice into three slices per ramekin.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

To assemble:
- Spread some tomato sauce on a plate
- Top with a slice of eggplant
- Place a bit more sauce on top of the eggplant
- Add a slice of polenta
- Continue layering the eggplant and polenta slices adding some tomato sauce between each layer. Top with more sauce and a basil leaf.

I really enjoyed this meal. Derek had originally mentioned doing an eggplant parmesan to use both the sauce and the eggplant but I really wanted something different. I want to expand my eggplant recipe base and so I thought of some sort of stack since the presentation is (usually) quite beautiful! Having recently had a fantastic brunch dish that had polenta, poached eggs, fresh summer vegetables and goat cheese (ah, just thinking about it makes my mouth water right now...) I had polenta on my mind and thought that could be a good contrast and compliment to the eggplant. I was right.

Each component of this dish was so simple to make and it would be very good with variations such as roasted or grilled portobello layers, roasted red peppers, mozzarella...any of those good hearty, earthy Italian-inspired flavors would work. We made ours simple with just eggplant and polenta but the variations make this an exciting go-to recipe that looks impressive and is really easy.