Grilled Polenta Points with White Bean Dip and Roasted Red Peppers

Last night I made dinner for my former secretary, only she called about an hour before and canceled. She said she had a headache. I had already made most of dinner and it was a lot of tasty food to eat by myself...and it'd have been sad to eat it by myself. I emailed SP who had already asked if he could come up Thursday, but I told him my friend was coming by, and told him she bailed and asked if he wanted to take her place...poor guy.

Well, he said to thank her...seriously. For the main course, I went simple and made a vodka sauce over tortellini. For the vodka sauce I simply threw in a can of diced tomatoes, some olive oil, a little tomato paste, some oregano, basil, garlic, a little California garlic blend, salt, pepper, and then a little heavy cream and 2 T. vodka at the end. It turned out nice over the three cheese tortellini. I didn't take a picture...I have some left over. If I get a picture of those, I'll post it later. We were hungry. He works 2 hours away...

For our appetizer, I thought I'd make some white bean dip, but I don't have much in the way of crackers and chips around the house, and I wanted something creative. I have polenta, so I made some of that...it's the quick kind that you bring 3 cups of water to a boil and then put a cup of polenta in and stir five minutes and then either serve or set. I wanted it to set to make points...so I spread it out in a casserole pan and put wrap right on top of the polenta so it wouldn't get a skin on top. When it cooled enough to handle, I cut it into squares and grilled it with a tiny bit of olive oil.

For the white bean dip, truthfully, I have no recipe for that either. I opened a can of white beans, dumped them into the food processor (after draining them) and added a couple of cloves of minced garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, about 2 T tahini (which is sold everywhere now, I think; it's sesame paste, like peanut butter in a jar, but made of ground sesame seeds...you have to stir it like old fashioned peanut butter) and then I turned the processor on and ground it all into a course puree. It's a little sticky and dry. I scraped the sides and hit it again to fully mix it up. Finally, I drizzled olive oil into the running processor to incorporate it into the dip/spread. I'm telling you, this stuff is delish! I could eat the whole bowl for dinner with a spoon.

I served the points with a healthy dollop of bean dip and a sliver of sliced roasted red bell pepper. Wow did SP love those. He didn't even know what polenta was until yesterday, and he's Italian. I guess his family doesn't make polenta. I'm sure his mom and aunts know what it is though. I've heard his mom and aunts tell stories of the wonderful Italian foods they grew up eating that they hate because it reminds them of their parents struggling to make ends meet. I suppose I can see that, but so much of what they talk about is wonderful, rustic food.

Oh, and I also made a loaf of crusty garlic bread, because what's pasta sauce without bread to sop it up with?