Made with polenta, zucchini, Parmesan and marinara, this gluten free lasagna is perfect for the whole family.
I grew up in a very loud home. My father, who was mostly Italian, lived with his mother and grandmother, who were 100% Italian. Conversations consisted of raised voices, hands moving wildly, and everyone talking over each other. Inevitably, these conversational habits carried over to my mom and eventually to me & my sisters.
Even though we’re now grown with families of our own, we are still very loud, hand talking, ‘can’t wait for my turn so I’m going to talk over you’ kind of people. We don’t even realize we’re doing it- it just sort of happens. It’s not easy being the loudest person in the room, so I’ve been trying to be more conscious of my volume, but it’s taken quite a bit of effort.
The plus side to having Italian running through my veins? The food. Particularly the pasta. Tons and tons of pasta. Seriously a favorite of mine. Along with just about any kind of Mexican food I can get my hands on, but that’s the fault of my mom’s side of the family 🙂
Now, my mom used to make polenta {a corn meal} for my dad on occasion, and he loved it. She would cook it herself, similar to cooking grits, and then serve it topped with a red meat sauce. These days you can get polenta ready made at your local grocery store. I’ve been wanting to try it for a while now, so when they were giving samples at my local World Market, I decided to pick up a package.
Layered with some zucchini and a marinara sauce, I figured I couldn’t go wrong.
Made with polenta, zucchini, Parmesan and marinara, this gluten free lasagna is perfect for the whole family.
20 minPrep Time
30 minCook Time
50 minTotal Time
Yields 6
Ingredients
- 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 1/4 C chopped onion
- 2 tsp oregano
- 2 tsp basil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp white sugar
- 1 pkg ready-made polenta, cut into 16 even slices
- Olive oil
- 1 zucchini, sliced
- 1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese, divided
Instructions
- Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a medium sauce pan
- Cook 2 tsp minced garlic and 1/4 C chopped onion just until soft
- Stir in crushed tomatoes, oregano, basil, salt and sugar
- Simmer until ready to use
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
- In a large skillet, heat about 1/4 c olive oil
- Fry slices of polenta, turning after brown and firm on one side;fry on second side until brown
- Remove to paper towel lined plate; repeat until all polenta slices are cooked
- Reduce heat and add zucchini slices; cook until slightly tender, about 3 mins
- In an 8 x 8 baking dish, evenly spread about 1/3 C marinara
- Layer half the polenta {it may not cover the entire bottom of the pan, but that's OK}, top with half the zucchini slices, and half of the remaining marinara
- Sprinkle with 1/4 C of the Parmesan cheese
- Repeat, except for the Parmesan
- Cover with foil and bake for 30 mins
- Let sit for about 5-10 min; uncover and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 C Parmesan cheese
Notes
When frying polenta, make sure they are not touching, otherwise they will stick together and be difficult to flip over
Leave a Reply