VinoVin Wine and Spirits

A well balanced wine that features a blend of red and blue fruits and a touch of baking spice on the nose, the palate is full of candied cherry and raspberry with hints of cocoa and spice.

Baked grouper on a bed of polenta covered in a red vegetable sauce medley.

This sounds like a winter meal and it is, but try this in the summer with a chilled bottle of Padre Pedro, a red blend from Portugal, our featured wine of September 2017.  It pairs well with the creamy polenta, the vegetable and yes, even the fish!

In a sauce pan begin with garlic and olive oil, then add carrots, celery, onions and a few cut up tomatoes.  Cook down until the vegetables soften just slightly.  Next add a can of either chopped or pureed tomatoes along with chopped fresh parsley and salt.  Cover and simmer until the rest of the meal is ready.  

While this is simmering cook the grouper in the oven at 400 degrees.  Season the grouper with lemon and salt and add some white wine to the pan.

In a large saucepan, cook the polenta.  Polenta is just cornmeal cooked in boiling salted water.  You should add a generous amount of butter when cooking also.  Directions are usually on the package.  You simply boil the water, add the butter and salt, then whisk the polenta into the water very slowly and you must keep whisking so the polenta does not clump.  When it is no longer grainy or hard it is ready.

Add a large spoon of polenta to a plate, create a crater in the center with the ladle.  Place a piece of the grouper on top of the polenta then ladle some of the vegetable mixture on top. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and drizzle with olive oil.

Buon Appetito!