A different take on Lasagna

[Carrie Bowman]

One of our favorite meals is something I invented one night by accident and it came out really good. There may be other variations out there but I hadn't seen them.

I make Polenta from scratch, add roasted garlic & Italian herbs while it's cooking, put in 13X9" casserole dish to set up.
I've made both meat ( I use ground sirloin but you could probably add sausage) or marinara sauce and let it cook overnight, you can use your favorite sauce.
The next day I take the Polenta out of dish and slice about the length & width of regular lasagna noodles.
Layer the Polenta in the casserole dish and on each strip of Polenta I smear roasted garlic, roasted red peppers and sometimes grilled yellow/green zucchini, then add sauce, mixture of regular mozzarella & smoked mozzarella and continue layers like a regular lasagna. I generally will put extra sauce because the Polenta soaks up quite a bit.
Bake as you would a regular Lasagna .

We've paired this with a variety of wines like Sangiovese, Cabernet and I think we even did a spicy zinfandel once.

[Jeff Leve]

Hi Carrie!!!

Yum. I like that idea. I'm a big fan of polenta. I made truffled polenta with scallops last night.

[Tony Velebil]

Jeff - show off

Carrie - I thought you guys just heated up Kraft and drank Ketchum?

[Carole Meredith]

That lasagna sounds great Carrie! I haven't had time to actually cook much of anything recently. We have found a pretty tasty lasagna at Genova Delicatessen in Napa. They make both meat and meatless versions and they freeze it in foil pans. We always keep one in the freezer for a great comfort food meal on short notice. Not the same as homemade but tasty nonetheless.

Carole

[Carrie Bowman]

Tony, we actually do eat other things besides Mac & Cheese & drink Ketcham ( do we have a neener emoticon)

Carole,
I haven't tried Genova lasagna but I like having something like that in the freezer for "I don't have time to cook nights"

[Tony Velebil]

seriously, that lasagna sounds good