polenta pizza

Last night I decided to try out Mark Bittman's polenta pizza recipe from How to Cook Everything. I was reminded of my desire to try this recipe earlier in the week, when I spotted a variation to the HtCE recipe in the Wednesday dining section of the Times. Given that the variation included pancetta, which clearly breaks The Pork Rule, I chose to follow the original, although somewhat loosely, as I wanted to top it with spicy sauteed broccoli rabe and aged provolone—a match made in heaven, if you ask me.

So I was ambitious: I made red sauce from scratch, I prepared the broccoli rabe (sauteed with garlic and red pepper flakes, then braised with water until the stems were tender), and I made a batch of polenta. All of these were first-timers for me, and I'm proud of myself for doing each one. But the end product, the pizza itself, wasn't what I'd hoped. The crust wasn't firm enough to hold up to a spatula sliding underneath it as I tried to plate each piece. I suspect that one of these facts may have contributed to this disappointing result:

• I might have flattened the polenta too thin in certain spots
• I should have let the polenta rest and firm up a while longer before topping and baking it (this step was included in the published version of the recipe, but not in the HtCE version, though it should be noted that MB used different ingredients, such as milk, in the polenta in the published version, too)
• I may have topped the polenta with too many wet ingredients

I'm not sure what is to blame, but I do know that I have more experimenting to do before posting my adaptation of the recipe here. Because while everything was exceptionally delicious, it looked a lot less like pizza and a lot more like a mess on a plate.

Tonight my dad and I are making: salmon baked with lemon and dill, potatoes Poupon (recipe to come tomorrow) and wilted arugula. I am also enjoying, as I type this in fact (!), a homemade margarita: lime juice, tequila, Cointreau, a splash of lemon juice. I'm still figuring out how the proportions, and until I do, you don't get the recipe. I think the best version was one I made over the summer and included some lemonade.

Happy weekend!