Creamy Polenta with Grilled Steak and Roasted Tomatoes

Creamy Polenta with Grilled Steak and Roasted Tomatoes. It’s delicious, it’s hearty, polenta is full of flavor, the tomatoes burst with flavor as you bite into them and steak melts in your mouth. It’s perfection!

I’m very excited to share this wonderful recipe with you today. I’ve been making polenta for as long as I can remember. Polenta is very common in a lot of cuisines, but probably nowhere as common as it is in Romania. I could probably safely say that polenta knows as mamaliga in Romanian is probably consumed more than bread.

Polenta is a peasant food, usually a substitute for bread. While in Romania, polenta is usually much thicker so that you can slice it like bread, this polenta in this recipe is a creamier polenta. Traditional Romanian mamaliga is usually made with cornmeal, boiling water and salt. However this polenta has a couple more ingredients to give it more taste.

In this polenta, butter, heavy cream and some freshly grated Parmesan cheese was added which gave the Polenta a wonderful creamy taste.

The steak is simply seasoned with salt and pepper and rubbed with some minced garlic, olive oil and oregano. Simple ingredients for a simple marinade, but very bold and delicious flavors. You can use any type of steak here, flank steak would work as well.

The tomatoes are simply roasted with a little bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and generously seasoned with salt and pepper.

As the tomatoes bake they release this wonderful juice, but don’t throw this away. You must drizzle this juice over the steak and the polenta. The aroma in the house as you make this meal is wonderful, so if you ever want to make a meal for a dinner party, I strongly recommend this. It’s delicious, it’s hearty, polenta is full of flavor, the tomatoes burst with flavor as you bite into them and steak melts in your mouth. It’s perfection!

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Creamy Polenta with Grilled Steak and Roasted Tomatoes

5 from 3 votes

Prep: 10 mins

Cook: 30 mins

Total: 40 mins

Author: Joanna Cismaru

Serves: 2

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Ingredients

For Creamy Polenta

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

For Roasted Tomatoes

• 2 cups cherry tomatoes
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

For Grilled Steak

• 2 medium steaks any would work, even flank steak
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 425 F degrees.
• In a bowl, whisk the ingredients for the steak marinade; minced garlic, olive oil and oregano. Season steaks with salt and pepper then rub the garlic marinade over them.
• In a baking dish toss the tomatoes together with the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. Roast them in the oven for about 15 minutes.
• To make the polenta, heat the butter together with olive oil. Add minced garlic and continue cooking just until you can smell the garlic. Add heavy cream and water and continue to cook until it starts boiling.
• Now you can start grilling the steak, I usually do mine about 7 minutes per side, but it depends how you like yours done.
• While the steak is grilling you can finish the polenta. Add the cornmeal to the boiling mixture. You will notice that it quickly thickens. Make sure you whisk quickly as to get rid of any lumps. If you notice the polenta is too thick, add more water, we want it creamu, not too thick, but you don't want it runny either. The polenta needs to cook for about 10 minutes.
• To serve, spoon polenta in a dish, top with steak and tomatoes. Drizzle juice from the roasted tomatoes over the steak and polenta and garnish with parsley.

Recipe Notes

If you have left over polenta, don't throw it away, eat it with some feta cheese and some yogurt or sour cream, it's super delicious.

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