Serve these as a starter (with a salad or herby dip), with a poached egg & cold meats for breakfast or as a side dish instead of your usual potato.

They use up cold leftover polenta as well as stale bread.

The polenta I used was actually a mix of polenta & cooked cauliflower which I’d puréed & used in place of mashed potatoes the previous day. If you are regular with polenta you’ll know that when it goes cold it sets to near-firm, depending on the ratio of liquid to dry polenta you use. To make the balls you want something that will hold its shape but not so hard that it just crumbles when rolling, I think the cauliflower was helping here.

Finally I stuffed these with a Cranberry, Pine nut & Goat’s Cheese Spread, just to add a little extra flavour & make these different from the mash I’d served up 24 hours earlier! You could fill with anything you fancy – I’d go for something soft so as not to jar with the soft polenta & to give you the best chance of it staying inside your ball, it’s not an obedient material to work with! I’d avoid anything too wet like tomatoes too. Finely chopped or puréed olives, sun-dried tomatoes, raisins, grated parmesan or mozzarella cubes all seem feasible.

They will freeze fine too or keep for a few days in the fridge and re-heat well.

Serves 4 as a side dish, 6 as a starter or part of brunch

Equipment

1. Blender (to make the bread crumbs)

Ingredients

1. 400-500g cooked, cold, semi-firm polenta (or polenta & veg mash)
2. 80g stale bread
3. 1 egg
4. Optional: 1 portion cranberry, pine nut & goat’s cheese spread, or other filling of your choice
   Drizzle of olive oil

Method

1. Cut the stale bread into small cubes & blend the bread to a medium-fine crumb, as you prefer. Add some herbs & seasoning if you like, whatever matches your polenta & intended use.
2. Place the crumbs in a wide, shallow dish so that you can easily place a ball in the middle & turn to coat – the balls will be delicate so no narrow-necked bowls.
3. Place the egg in a similar shape dish & whisk briefly.
4. Grease an oven dish ready to place the balls in. Once you start you’ll get sticky wet hands quickly so have everything ready.
5. Get any filling you want ready, including a spoon if you need one to get the filling into each ball.
6. Cut the polenta into even portions to make the number of balls you need. Do a trial one first to check how much polenta you need to encase your filling (if using).
7. With clean, dry hands, take your first portion of polenta and gently shape into a ball by rolling between the palms of your hands.
8. If filling, place the rough ball shape into one hand and gently press a small dimple halfway into the ball with your thumb.
9. Place in your filling & gently tease the polenta from the sides up and over the filling and begin to roll between your palms again.
10. Work quickly & lightly – it isn’t an exact science so as soon as it is roughly ball shaped & the filling covered, move to the next step.
11. Place the ball in the whisked egg & turn gently to coat. A little polenta may fall off into the egg but don’t worry, just leave it.
12. Place into the bread crumbs & again, turn gently to coat, sprinkling with crumbs too to avoid over-handling the ball.
13. Place onto the greased oven tray.
14. Repeat for each of your balls. You’ll find it easier working with clean hands so wash off the sticky polenta-bread mix that builds up on your hands after a few goes.
15. Drizzle with a little olive oil, don’t worry about covering every inch. It’s just to stop the bread burning.
16. Bake in a hot oven (200c ish) until crispy & golden – 20-30mins.
17. Serve hot or eat cold on a picnic, or freeze for another day.