This week I am honoured to bring you a guest post from Robyn B. of Modern Day Missus. This recipe looks delicious, and I see it entering my menu this very weekend. I lovely way to get some salad into my winter menu while combining it with something warm from the oven. 

Tasting notes

Bring the house down at your next dinner party! This is an easy to make dish, but with a gorgeous and colourful presentation. The combination of balsamic, tomato and pine nuts work wonderfully together with the polenta.
Serves 4

Ingredients

Polenta
1 cup polenta
500ml vegetable stock (hot)
sea salt
pinch of paprika
Tomatoes
4 tomatoes
Dash of olive oil
Salt and pepper
Balsamic glaze
Chopped parsley (optional)
Salad
2 Tablespoons pine nuts
4 cups rocket
Dash of olive oil

Method

Place your polenta in a saucepan on medium heat with the vegetable stock and stir until it forms a thick, porridge like texture and almost all of the stock has been absorbed. Add more liquid if required. It should be a thick mixture.
Line a baking tray with baking paper (with the edges coming up the side so you can lift it out) and pat down to about 2-3 cm thickness. Place in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Preheat your oven to about 180 degrees celcius (360 farhenheit) and slice each tomato into four pieces. Place in the oven with a dash of olive oil and season with salt and pepper and roast for about 45 minutes or until the tomatoes are fully cooked and have turned a beautiful deep red colour.
Meanwhile, wash your rocket and place in a bowl and toss with a drizzle of olive oil. Dry fry (no oil or other fats) your pine nuts for a few moments until they become aromatic and slightly golden. Place in the bowl with the rocket and toss.
Preheat your pan with grill marks (if you don’t have one, you can also use a frypan, or a BBQ), and drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil, just enough that it won’t stick when you’re turning it over.
Take out your polenta from the fridge and slice into triangles. Fry until heated and it has gone crunchy (our cast-iron pan takes ages, but it would only take about 5-10 minutes in a normal frypan).
Take the tomatoes out of the oven briefly and drizzle a tiny bit of balsamic glaze on (about 1-2 teaspoons – you’ll put more on when you serve it), and also the parsley. Place back in the oven for about 3 minutes.
Once your polenta and tomatoes are cooked, serve with the rocket salad and drizzle with balsamic glaze.

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What do you think, will you give it a try?
As usual, I have shared this post over at Essentially Jess’s I Blog On Tuesday (IBOT) link up.