Are you looking for some new dinner ideas? How about a new take on lasagna, a lasagna style dish with no noodles and no meat? I put together this incredible tasty Italian Polenta Cheese Bake infused with fresh basil and 4 cheeses, tomatoes and garlic. It was so delicious and even the kids loved it, especially my kids, because it is like pulling teeth to get them to eat meat. This dish is paired nicely with Mama’s Sesame French Bread or the Sun Dried Tomato Basil Biscuits found in Mama’s Cookbook. In the Kitchen With Gluten Free Mama.
Mama’s Italian Polenta Cheese Bake
Recipe Type: Gluten Free Main Meals
Author:
Ingredients
- 1 pkg. Polenta, (Garlic and Herb flavor), sliced into 1/2 inch slices
- 2 zucchini’s, sliced into thin slices (One for each layer)
- 1 lb Mozzarella Cheese, Block, sliced into thin slices
- 8 oz ricotta cheese
- 1/2 jar Spaghetti Sauce, Garlic or Cheese flavored
- Fresh Basil, several leaves
- 8 oz, Parmesan Cheese, shredded
- Romano cheese, shredded,
- 2 tomatoes, sliced
- 4-5 garlic cloves, sliced
- Olive oil, (Mama’s used garlic infused, any will work fine though)
Instructions
- Gluten Free Mama’s Pollenta Bake
- Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly drizzle oil over bottom of 9 x 12 pan.
- Slice Polenta into 1/2 slices. Layer the bottom of pan with slices.
- Place thin slices of zucchini over the top of each slice of Polenta.
- Place thin slices of Mozzarella over the top of the zucchini slices. (Fresh Mozzarella would even be better!)
- Using a 1 inch scoop place rounded scoops of Ricotta cheese over the top of the Mozzarella slices. Flatten out lightly.
- Ladle spaghetti sauce over the next layer.
- Layer think slices of zucchini over spaghetti sauce.
- Place fresh basil leaves all over the top of the zucchini slices.
- Place another layer of thin slices of Mozzarella across top.
- Sprinkle a layer of Parmesan cheese over top of Mozzarella.
- Layer tomato slices over the next layer.
- Freshly shred Romano Cheese over the tomato slices to taste. You don’t need a lot for a lot of flavor.
- If desired, slice 4 or 5 garlic cloves and layer over top layer. (If desired to lessen the strong flavor of garlic you can lightly saute garlic for 2-3 minutes with olive oil and then place over the top of casserole.)
- Drizzle olive oil over the top of casserole. (Mama used garlic infused olive oil for extra flavor.)