Polenta Crust with Broccoli and Chicory

Cime di rapa e cicoria belga con crosta di polenta

By: Antonio Carluccio
From: Vegetables
Serves: 4-6
Photographer: Laura Edwards

The nearest most people will be able to get to the Italian favourite, cime di rape (actually a form of rape), are small spears of purple sprouting broccoli. In the south of Italy, when cime di rape is in season, it is constantly used, mostly as a side dish to fish and meat, but also by itself as a minestra, braised to be eaten with bread. The combination with chicory and polenta, as here, is my favourite.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
5 tablespoons	extra virgin olive oil
1	garlic clove, peeled and finely sliced
500g	cime di rape
450g	belgian chicory, the chicons cut in half
a few	salted capers, desalted and chopped
1	small chilli, finely sliced
	salt
	freshly ground black pepper

Polenta crust

Quantity	Ingredient
375g	fine instant polenta
6 tablespoons	extra virgin olive oil

Method

To start cooking the vegetables, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and lightly fry the garlic. Add the rape tops or broccoli, the chicory, capers and a little water, then cover with a lid and cook until tender, about 10–15 minutes. Add the chilli, and some salt and pepper to taste, and gently simmer for 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, to make the polenta crust – a sort of cake – place the polenta in a bowl and add about 250ml of hot water, with some salt and 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Mix well. Flatten with your hand to a rough hamburger size, keeping it as one cake. Fry in a suitably sized frying pan, in the remaining oil, until first one side and then the other is darkish brown and forms a crust. This should take about 8 minutes on each side.
Eat the polenta cake cut into wedges, together with the vegetables.