Polenta and Meatball Casserole with La Castellena Chianti Classico

The polenta and meatball casserole just before being pulled from the oven.

On a recent trip to Trader Joe's, Tyler placed a roll of pre-made polenta in the cart. Polenta is something I have had on my list to make from scratch for quite some time, but, just have not gotten around to it.  I had no idea what I was going to do with this pre-made polenta. As I scoured the web, I realized that polenta is a popular pasta substitute in the gluten free world. After looking through the freezer and refrigerator, I came up with a lasagna style casserole. This meal could not be easier to put together!

Hey, what can I say? Polenta is tasty, filling, and inexpensive. It's a great substitute for starch in a meal, and it carries sauce well. It's really not that exotic -- I once heard it described as "Italian mashed potatoes."

Ingredients

Pre-made polenta 

Your favorite pasta sauce

Meatballs (Recipe below.)

Your favorite cheese. ( I had mozzarella on hand)

Preheat the oven to 350.  

Layers of polenta, meatballs, and sauce, ready for
more sauce and cheese.

Preheat a non-stick skillet on medium high. Slice the polenta into thin rounds. Place polenta into skillet.  Lightly brown both sides. Meanwhile, place about a 1/2 cup of sauce in the bottom of your casserole dish. Place a layer with of polenta on top of the sauce. After another layer of sauce, layer your meatballs. Top with the remaining polenta and sauce.  Sprinkle your cheese on top. Bake for 30 minutes, or until bubbly. 

Allow to sit for 3 to 5 minutes and serve. Mangia, mangia!

One batch cooking, one batch resting.

For the meatballs:

16 oz. ground beef

1/4 cup Italian style breadcrumbs

1 egg

crushed or minced garlic to taste

salt and pepper to taste

Heat a non-stick skillet on medium high. Mix ingredients together. Shape into round balls.  Brown meatballs in skillet. You do not need to cook the meatballs all the way through, as they will finish in the oven.

Ready to serve!

The wine pairing for this was obvious, given what we had on hand in the house; I'd gotten a bottle of La Castellena's 2007 Chianti Classico as a prize at work a couple of weeks ago, Italian wine with an Italian-inspired casserole. The Classico Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) is at the heart of the Chianti region of Tuscany, first laid down into law in 1716. It's a blend of at least 80% sangiovese, aged in barrel for at least 10 months, from vines at least 4 years old, with limits on yield per acre and per vine. Chianti often gets a bad rap as being "cheap Italian wine," mainly due to requirements prior to 1995 requiring that white grapes be used in the blend. However, because the market still hasn't caught on to the higher quality of wine produced in Chianti in the past 15 years, it can represent a great value for savvy wine buyers; good Chianti ranges from $10-$25, while other top wines from Tuscany can be much more expensive (eg, Brunello de Montalcino runs from $30-"how much do you want to spend?").

This particular Chianti is a blend of 90% sangiovese and 10% caniolo nero, aged in barrels for a year, with a further 3 months of bottle age before release. Since this wine comes from the 2007 vintage (a very good year for wine in Tuscany), it's actually seen quite a bit more bottle age -- more like 45 months up to now. The tart strawberry and spicy notes compliment red sauce well, and the gentle tannins of a Chianti work well with meals that have a little protein, but are not dominated by it.

Other good choices for this would have been a mid-weight merlot, or a heavier pinot noir. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo would be another good Italian choice, especially if you use a spicy sauce or spice up the meatballs a bit more.

Paella with Grão Vasco Dão Branco

Paella, just prior to plating.

Last night, we Tyler's co-worker Brittany, a fellow wine geek and foodie, over for dinner.  I always feel like I need to make something impressive when we have dinner guests.  Paella is perfect in this situation.  It's simple enough for a weeknight dinner party, but exotic enough that most people don't think to make it on a regular basis. 

Paella can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want.  Using frozen seafood and a paella seasoning packet reduces the cost. Saffron is an important spice in paella, unfortunately it costs $5 for a small pinch.  

You'll need this stuff at the bare minimum.

Ingredients


2 tbs. olive oil
16 oz. chorizo (spicy) or linguica (mild) sausage
12-16 oz. fresh or frozen seafood (clams, mussels, shrimp, squid, octopus)
2 cups white rice (medium grain or arborio is best)
4 cups chicken broth (low sodium preferably)
Optional: add 1 or 2 cups of frozen peas and/or several mussels or clams in shell for presentation.

Ready, set, let's make paella!

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in either a paella pan or large skillet over medium high heat. We have a paella pan, so that's what we used.

Paella pan, heating up. If you don't have a paella pan, a skillet will work.

Chop the sausage into bite sized pieces and brown. Once the sausage is browned, remove it to a bowl, add the broth to deglaze, and stir in the seasoning packet. Mix in the rice, reduce the heat to low, and simmer.

Mmm. Cooking sausage. Smells great!

Rice cooked in chicken broth, what could be a better base for a meal?

When the rice has started to absorb the liquid, add the sausage back in.  The seasoning in the sausage add flavor to the paella.

OK, adding sausage makes it better...

As the liquid continues to absorb, be sure to stir frequently. When the liquid is mostly absorbed, add your seafood. If you are choosing to add fresh clams or mussels, be sure to put a lid over the pan for a few minutes so that they will steam open.

... and adding seafood makes it great!

If the rice begins to stick to the bottom of the pan... let it! That's what's supposed to happen. In Spain, grown men will fight over the crust of rice on their paella.

Tasty, tasty crust.

When the liquid is fully absorbed, it's time to serve. As they would say in Spain, ¡Disfrute su cena!

Plated, paired with wine,
and ready to eat!

The wine pairing for this was a natural; Iberian food and Iberian wine. Initially, I thought of using an albariño from Rias Biaxas, in northwestern Spain, and that would have worked (especially if I'd picked one of the fuller, rounder style albariños that are popular right now). Good examples can be found for under $20, however, good values can also be found in Portugal, which is where our pairing for this meal comes from. We had a bottle of Grão Vasco Dão Branco, a white wine from the Dão, in north-central Portugal, south of the Douro river, and which cost me about $9. It's a blend of Portuguese grapes -- encruzado, bical, and malvasia fina, for those who keep track at home -- but don't get too caught up on "what grape type is this?" for Portuguese wines, as they've got about 8,000 types of wine grapes. Additionally, since they've been making wine since Roman times, the prevailing attitude is "we've been growing grapes on that hill for a thousand years, we know well what grows well there," as it is in most of the rest of Europe.

Anyhow, the wine had a nice citrusy note on the finish, that complimented the seafood well, but it had enough oomph to stand up to the rice,  a nice, round melony midpalate. For a pairing with paella, it worked quite well. It'd also be pretty darn good with medium-weight fish, like haddock or sole, or a bowl of thick clam chowder.

Other wines that would work with paella would include heavier Italian varieties; Soave or other garganega-based wines comes to mind. Sancerre or Pouilly-Fume from the Loire, in France, could work as well. A very mildly oaked chardonnay from California might squeak in, too. I would, however, not choose an oaky wine, nor one that's too light -- no New Zealand sauvignon blanc or really oaky, buttery chardonnay with this one! You want to balance the weight and the flavor profile of the wine with the weight and flavor of the food; since citrus goes so well with seafood, you want something with some crisp acidity, and since we've got a heavier food here, with the thick rice, we want something with a little weight to it.

About Us

Welcome to my blog!  My name is Angela.  I am a teacher by day, and an at home chef by night.  I love cooking, and more importantly, I love to eat...  However, being a teacher, inexpensive food is best!  This blog will be dedicated to sharing inexpensive, fairly simple, but most importantly, delicious, food..

And I'm Tyler; Angela's husband. I work in the wine industry, so I've got access to a lot of cool wines (need any Latour for the cellar? Perhaps you're looking for a Tokaij for dessert?). Because of that, we've always got nifty beverages to go with our food, and pairing the wine with what my wife makes is my job. Unless she's got a late night at the gym, then I get to put my 2¢ in on the food, as well.

You'll be able to tell us apart due to the font; I don't like Times New Roman, but Tyler does, so he'll be using that.

Actually, I just am font-agnostic (except for Comic Sans), but close enough. Times New Roman for me it is.