Summer Lasagna

Lasagna has something for everyone. Cheese. Starch. More cheese. But vegetarian lasagna? Well that’s usually just Mom’s recipe without the meat. Bo-ring. (Nothing against your mom. She’s lovely.) Since it’s too hot to turn on the oven and my farmers market produce overfloweth, it’s time to find a new twist on this old favorite. My friend Lucinda gets giddy when she talks about polenta. She happily discovered it when she and her husband were young and poor in London. They could buy a week’s worth of polenta for less than two rides on the Tube – they ate a lot of polenta. “Polenta” is a synonym for cornmeal. But comparing polenta to the stuff in the Quaker canister is like comparing Champagne to grape juice. Beverages, yes. Substitutes, no. Polenta can be served creamy, like grits. Or it can be cooled in a pan and then toasted, which is alternatively called “hard polenta” or, as I like to think of it: dreamy, roasted corn goodness. Grilled hard polenta, with its cheery yellow color and intense corn flavor, is an ideal base for my summer-themed lasagna. But what to put on top? Lucinda often pairs her polenta with a warm mushroom sauce. I sauteed portobello mushrooms (whose nutty, hearty flavor pay homage to the traditional ground beef) and whisked in some mascarpone cheese. Then I marinated red bell peppers, zucchini, yellow squash and asparagus in a shallot-balsamic vinaigrette. I grilled the polenta and veggies, assembled the layers and dug in. It was a disaster. The mushroom sauce was delicious but had an ugly gray hue. The vegetables had soaked up the vinaigrette and were brown and slimy because of it. Sure, it tasted fine, but it looked like the gruel in Oliver Twist. Only worse. I wanted to replace the mushroom sauce with fresh mozzarella; it references traditional lasagna and isn’t, well, repulsive. The tricky part was the temperature of the cheese. Hot, toasted polenta is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. But when it’s cold, the texture transforms into something weird and putty-like. To keep the mozzarella from prematurely cooling the polenta, I added it while the polenta was still on the grill. Victory! The mozzarella melted into a warm, ooey-gooey layer. And the vegetables? I ditched the marinade and grilled them with just enough oil to prevent sticking. They looked pretty but tasted bland. The solution was the tangy tomato bruschetta topping I had made the day before. By dotting it on top of the lasagna, I jazzed up the entire entree. Bonus: The bright red tomatoes added a pop of color to the plate. The tastes and colors were now in harmony, but I had a hard time keeping the layers assembled. No matter what, the asparagus spears rolled and the peppers slid. Remembering that less is more, I edited it down to four layers. Polenta, melted mozzarella, grilled zucchini, tomato topping. Perfect. Here’s the honest truth: If you are making this for people who love you no matter what their meal looks like, go ahead and pile the vegetables on. Consider a grilled vegetable buffet, where everyone starts with a piece of grilled polenta with mozzarella and adds their own layers. But if you’re serving folks who observe such formalities as real napkins, it’s best to keep it simple.