Polenta Pie

From the Moosewood Cookbook:

I quadrupled the recipe, but wound up getting five pies out of it instead of just four.

Filling:

4 Tbsp. olive oil
2 small onions
2 c. thinly sliced bell pepper (I used green but would choose red if I do this again)
4 zucchini
20 cloves of garlic, sliced
8 tsp. dried basil.
2 tsp. dried oregano
(The original recipe calls for mushrooms, but I left them out.)

4 tomatoes, sliced
1 lb. mozzarella

I sauteed the vegetables the night before.

Heat the oil. Add the onion and cook until soft (5-8 minutes). Add the bell pepper and zucchini and cook till tender. Then stir in the herbs and garlic. Because I could never tolerate cutting that much garlic, I used jarred.

Crust:
6 c. cornmeal
4 tsp. salt
6 c. cold water
8 c. boiling water
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the first three ingredients in a bowl. Have boiling water on the stove, and add the corn meal mixture, whisking. Cook 10 minutes. Do this step in advance because you will need to give the polenta time to cool down to the point you can handle it.

Oil a 10 inch pie pan. Add the polenta and press it in to form a smooth, thick crust. Brush the surface with olive oil and bake uncovered for 45 minutes.

The original recipe calls for broiling the pie at this point, but the Pyrex pie pans aren't supposed to go on the broiler, so I just continued to bake at 375 degrees.

Sprinkle half the cheese onto the baked crust. Add tomato slices. Spread the sauteed mixture over the tomatoes, and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Stick it back in the oven to bake until the cheese melts.