An Appetizer We'd Happily Eat for Any Meal (Even Dessert!)

As soon as these hit the pan in our Test Kitchen, we started discussing their potential: They're easy enough for a make-ahead breakfast! They'd be the perfect appetizer—or dinner side to sop up gravy! Or lunch! Another editor suggested dessert—the honey and goat cheese would be just sweet enough for the savory-inclined.

Arielleclementine's dish, inspired by her favorite Spanish tapa, is made with rich polenta (cooked in whole milk) that's then cut into rounds and pan-seared in olive oil. She tops each with onions, caramelized in butter and olive oil, crumbled goat cheese, and honey.

It's simple to whip up and isn't time sensitive: It tastes just as delicious at room temperature as it does warm. And at the same time, it could work as an appetizer or side, or even as the main (I ate a round with a side of spinach and couldn't have asked for a better dinner), so it came as no surprise to us that Amanda and Merrill felt the same way when they originally tested the recipe. They wrote in their headnote:

As we tasted this polenta, crisped in a pan and topped with caramelized onions, goat cheese and a sprinkling of honey, we thought aloud that it would make a great first course. No, a small lunch! Or how about breakfast! We’d happily eat it all day long, and we think you would, too.

How would you serve these? Have you made them before? Tell us in the comments below!