Recipe: Polenta Crust Pizza

Polenta Crust Pizza by Damaris from Kitchen Corners

 The Polenta Crust Pizza is naturally gluten free and perfect for toddlers

Today our bag of flour came to an end. That's a 50lb. bag of flour that we keep under the sink. Today, alone, my husband used 15 cups and I used another 2 cups. Bread and donuts were made. It's always a little surprising when we run out of flour, it's absurd how much we consume.  Not to say that I don't love bread and donuts. I do, but still 50lb. is a lot.

I've been thinking more about trying out gluten free recipes. My son has two close friends with gluten allergies. I have a close friend who became gluten intolerant during her 4th pregnancy and has never recovered. I also have friends who decided not to consume gluten and have no allergies. All this got me thinking and researching alternatives to recipes that I wold otherwise make with flour.

So today Baby Maria and I made a polenta pizza.

She tried to eat all the tomatoes before I even had a chance to get them on the pizza. I just smile. I have been a tomato aficionada since I can remember, looks like we have another one tomato lover in the house. I have to say she's way cuter at eating tomatoes than I am.

Making polenta is easy. Bring 3 cups vegetable broth to a boil. Then turn off the stove and quickly stir 1 1/2 cups corn meal and 2 tablespoons olive oil. I also added salt, garlic, and Italian seasoning. You can add whatever kind of seasoning you like. Then spread the polenta on a tart pan or a spring form pan and bake at 350* for 30 minutes. This is really important because you want your crust to be somewhat dried out so that when you put your toppings it will hold it's form and not become polenta mush. After you bake the crust add tomato sauce and whatever kind of toppings you like. I wanted to go for something fresh and healthy, so I went for spinach, pumpkin, goat cheese, and tomatoes. Then I baked for an additional 15 minutes. I was thrilled with the end result. It was super delicious. Baby Maria ate all the tomatoes even when they were hot. Then she made her way through the rest of the pizza, topping by topping. She loved it.

I think polenta pizza is great for kids, specially kids who only have 7 teeth. I noticed that Baby Maria had a much easier time eating polenta crust, then flour crust. The polenta crust is softer and the corn meal just melts in your mouth. She is also a huge fan of vegetables (yeah, we'll see how long that will last) and it's fun for her to have a colorful selection on top of her pizza. She uses her little chubby finger to pick each topping off one by one.

Tomorrow we're having leftover polenta pizza for lunch.
I'm excited.

by Damaris from Kitchen Corners