Polenta with Italian Bean Sauce

I'm trying a new recipe today! Yay!

I got this recipe from The McDougal Quick & Easy Cookbook: Over 300 Delicious Low-Fat Recipes You Can Prepare in Fifteen Minutes or Less

Phew! That was a mouthful!

I can see today is an exclamation point kind of day...I've already used four of them!...make it five, LOL.

This is the first time that I write a post as I'm cooking...mostly because I'm sitting here waiting for the polenta to cool so I can cut it into disks.

Before I continue, here's the recipe from the McDougal book, with my adjustments

Ingredients
1 24-ouce package precooked polenta (I made my own)
1/3 cup water (I used olive oil)
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-ouce can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 14.5-ounce can Italian style stewed tomatoes (I cut up and seasoned my own tomatoes)
1 1/2 cups frozen cut green beans (I used fresh green beans)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
2. Slice the polenta into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place on a nonstick baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, place the water, onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a saucepan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes
4. Add the garbanzo beans, white beans, and tomatoes. Cook for another 10 minutes.
5. Ass the green beans and cook an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Serve over the polenta


As I looked through the recipe, I noticed that it called for packaged, precooked polenta. BUT, since I've never made polenta before, I decided that I would make it from scratch. It just didn't seem right to use the prepackaged kind for my first time, you know??

I found a recipe for basic polenta, which seemed easy enough. It called for 1 cup corn meal and 3 cups water. I let it simmer it could support a spoon, just like the recommendations said. Then, I spread it on a wooden board to cool. I tasted it and it seems pretty bland. I was surprised that nothing else goes into the polenta. For the McDougal recipe, I'm supposed to bake the polenta and then top it with the bean mixture, so I'm hoping that the other flavors will compliment it.

OK, so I just finished baking the polenta, and...yuck...way too bland. I put some shredded mozzarella and provolone on it and melted it. It helped, but I would definitely season it next time.

Next time I make polenta, I'll look for a more complex recipe.

I had one more problem with this recipe. The bean mixture didn't taste good to me. I used to making Cuban beans with A LOT of flavor. This recipe didn't have any depth. I ended up adding extra garlic, salt, pepper, basil, and parsley. It helped a bit, but in the future I will cook the beans from scratch.

The taste was alright after my additions, but I'll have to try this recipe a few more times and tweak it until I'm happy.

**sigh**so much for 15 minute recipes**sigh**

Here's a picture of my not-so-successful, 15-minute recipe, that actually took 45 minutes.