Oh no!! It's Monday night. I am starving. I am tired. I have no meat defrosted. What are we going to eat?
When nights like these occur, I sift through my fridge and pantry searching for inspiration. I found eggs...mmm...bacon...mmm... breakfast!! Where are my grits...what!?! No grits!! (Common problem) I will just have to improvise.
Rosemary Polenta with Bacon and Eggs
Creamy polenta with crunchy bacon and a fried egg? Can there be anything better? I can't tell you how difficult it was for me to refrain long enough to take a picture of this last minute meal.
Just few ingredients this time...because this is practically all I had at my house. I used yellow cornmeal for my polenta, but feel free to use correctly labeled "Polenta" from the store. It is a little more coarse, but not as coarse as grits. All the polenta calls for is cornmeal, parmesan, rosemary, chicken stock, and milk.
But, this meal starts with bacon. I cooked my bacon up on the stove-top because later I am going to fry my eggs in the bacon juice. When ingredients are few, the flavor must be big!!
I used about three sprigs of rosemary. Strip the rosemary needles from the stem and finely chop them. By this point, your bacon is sizzling in the pan and popping to grab your attention.
Time to flip! Once the bacon is nice a crispy brown, remove it from the pan and allow it to drain on a paper towel.
While the bacon grease is still hot, crack two eggs into the skillet until the whites have set and the yolk is still runny. Now, I made us two eggs a piece. I won't stop you if you are going to be stingy and only eat one egg, but Matt already gives me a hard time about just letting him eat two pieces of bacon when we have ten more in the fridge. Like the old saying goes, "Two is better than one."
In a small pot, heat about 1-1 1/2 cups of chicken stock until boiling.
Reduce the heat to simmer and slowly add 1/3 cup of your cornmeal while whisking to prevent the cornmeal from making lumps.
Let there be polenta. Polenta, my dad always reminds me, means mush in Italian. So, when that fancy restaurant tries to charge you $30 for Jumbo Shrimp over Polenta with a White Wine Demi-glaze, ask them what polenta means and try to get a discount. It has never worked for me, but maybe you will have better luck!
Add 1/3 a cup of parmesan, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Mix everything together thoroughly.
My polenta was not as creamy as I envisioned, so I added a splash of milk to give it that silky texture.
Perfect!! Now to build your dinner. Dish your polenta into shallow bowls and top it with bacon and eggs.
I hope you enjoy this super comforting, super easy, super pleasing, rib-sticking weeknight dinner. Brinner is always one of my favorites, but when it turns out this beautiful, it is just a bonus.
Ingredients:
4 pieces of bacon
4 eggs
3 sprigs of Rosemary
1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese, shredded
1/3 cup of cornmeal
1-1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
A splash of milk
Directions:
Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Cook 4 slices of bacon until brown and crunchy. Remove the bacon to a paper towel for draining. To the hot skillet, crack your eggs and fry sunny side up. Cook the eggs in batches if necessary. Remove the eggs from the skillet when the whites are set and the yolk is still runny.In a small sauce pan, add your chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add your cornmeal to the chicken stock while whisking to prevent lumps from forming. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk everything until it has come together and is coming away from the edges of the pan. Sprinkle in your parmesan and rosemary. Stir to combine. Add a dash of milk to the polenta immediately prior to serving.