Recipe of the Week: Ratatouille Polenta Bake

My friend Sara is a vegetarian and I have Celiac so we have a hard time coming up with places we can both eat at or recipes we can both enjoy. One Sunday Sara came over for lunch and I made Ratatouille Polenta Bake. It's gluten-free and vegetarian!

 

After living in Northern Italy I became very fond of polenta and you can't really go wrong with eggplant, tomatoes, and zucchini. I used this recipe except I didn't buy the prepared polenta since I already had some non-prepared stuff on hand.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped (1/2 cup)
• 1 medium bell pepper, coarsely chopped (1 cup)
• 1 small unpeeled eggplant, (1 pound), diced (2 cups)
• 1 medium zucchini, diced (1 cup)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) Italian-style stewed tomatoes, undrained
• 1 tube (16 ounces) refrigerated plain polenta (or any flavor)
• 2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
• 3/4 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese (3 ounces)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

  

Directions: 

1. Heat oven to 375ºF. Spray 12-inch nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium-high heat. Cook onion and bell pepper in skillet 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in eggplant, zucchini, salt and pepper. Cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender. Stir in tomatoes, breaking up with spoon; reduce heat to low. Cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Spray rectangular baking dish, 11x7x1 1/2 inches, with cooking spray. Cut polenta into 1/4-inch slices. Arrange slices on bottom of dish, overlapping and cutting to fit where necessary. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Spoon vegetable mixture evenly over top.
3. Cover and bake 30 minutes. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and parsley. Bake uncovered about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and casserole is bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before serving  

It gets a B+ nutritional grade:

I give it a 3 out of 5 stars because it wasn't very flavorful. I had to add a lot more salt and pepper. After that it tasted good and we had lots of leftovers that I took to work for lunch.