Test Kitchen: Creamy Polenta, Pesto and Roasted Vegetables

Jay Patruno, Junior Dietetics Student, SAR ’18

Polenta and KIND and weddings, oh my!
Proof that Test Kitchen is like a family is how we spent a lot of time this Wednesday swooning over photos from a wedding that happened just this past Saturday between two regular Test Kitchen attendees. Test Kitchen was graced with the presence of true, young love this week. I know what you’re thinking, but they actually did not fall in love at Test Kitchen. What we all did fall in love with, though, was creamy polenta with roasted vegetables and pesto garnish that we made.

The beautiful thing about this recipe is that you can build it like a grain bowl or salad at Sweet Greens. It all just layers together in a bowl and eats so perfectly. It is open for a lot of variation to please all palates as well. By this I mean you can swap out the roasted tomatoes, zucchini, and shallots for any vegetable(s) that you fancy or that’s in season or on sale at the store. You can make the pesto garnish as thin or as thick as you want, even adding pine nuts or other flavors that you think would meld well with the dish. This vegetarian dish could also be made vegan if you swap out the butter and cheeses for a dairy substitute (very minimal amount in the dish overall though).

Aside from enjoying this very comforting dish we also had a representative from KIND snack bars come for a visit and share some free samples with us. See folks, coming to Test Kitchen you not only get free food and good conversation but you also get free stuff to take home and sample. We also had a Questrom student working on her Core project drop by to get Karen’s OT opinion on her team’s product design. This Wednesday had quite the diverse agenda, but that’s the beauty of Test Kitchen; no Wednesday night is the same week to week.