Baked polenta with tomato sauce

Baked polenta with tomato sauce. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Here's a winter warmer that will take longer to describe than it will to assemble for supper. For a  variation on baked pasta with tomato sauce, pick up a package of  Frieda's already cooked polenta, slice it up and set the rounds in a bath of homemade (or not) tomato sauce, sprinkle with cheese and bake. Super easy.

Polenta slices in tomato sauce. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

For the tomato sauce, you could pop open a jar of your favorite sauce, or use my go-to dead-easy, weeknight sauce - a can of good-quality crushed tomatoes with a clove or two of minced garlic and a teaspoon or so of Italian seasoning (winter version) or a few leaves of chopped, fresh basil (summer version) stirred in.

Apply a top coat of sauce, finish with a layer of mozzarella and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Set the table, make the salad, toast the bread.  Dinner is served.

Polenta with tomato sauce and cheese. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and  Her Books

I occasionally review products that I use in my own kitchen. Thanks to Frieda's Specialty Produce

for supplying the polenta. The opinions here are my own.

Text and images copyright 2013, Lucy Mercer.