Spud & Root

Recipe · Appetizer

Golden Potato & Polenta Medallions with Fontina & Balsamic Glaze

Crispy fried polenta rounds, each stacked with thin Gold potato slices tossed in garlic, rosemary, anise and Parmesan. Baked under a blanket of fontina and finished with balsamic glaze. Makes 12, serves 5.

  • Prep20 min
  • Cook30 min
  • Ready in50 min
  • Serves5
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Made with Spud & Root Gold Potatoes
A white platter of polenta and potato medallions, each under melted fontina with a zigzag of balsamic glaze and chopped parsley, with a bag of Spud & Root Gold Potatoes behind.
Watch it come together

Fry. Stack. Melt. Glaze.

Watch the polenta fry until crisp, the potatoes get seasoned and stacked, and the fontina melt over the top. Then scroll down and cook along.

  1. Fry Polenta rounds, 5 minutes a side.
  2. Stack Seasoned potato slices on each.
  3. Melt Fontina, then back in the oven.
The recipe

Let's make some medallions.

Ready in 50 minutes.

  1. PrepSlice, fry & stack
  2. Bake20 min, then the fontina
  3. FinishGlaze & parsley

Eat

Your medallions

A log of polenta, big plans

  1. Heat the oven

    Heat the oven to 400°F on convection bake.

  2. Slice the polenta

    Slice the polenta into 12 rounds, ½ inch thick.

  3. Fry the polenta

    Fry the polenta rounds in olive oil until crispy, about 5 minutes per side.

    Olive oil being poured into a black cast-iron skillet, with a bag of Spud & Root Gold Potatoes behind.
    Oil in the pan.
    A hand laying pale polenta rounds into the oiled skillet.
    Lay them in.
    A fork flipping a polenta round in the skillet, showing a golden, crisp underside.
    Golden underneath? Flip.
    Practice round: one pan
    Five a side

    Twelve polenta rounds, one hot pan. Tap a spot to lay a round in, and its clock starts. Flip each one when the side underneath is golden, then lift it out once both sides are. The only clue is the colour creeping up its edge. Turn the burner up to go faster, or down to buy time.

    A hot pan with a splash of oil, and twelve polenta rounds to fry.

  4. Slice the potatoes

    Slice the potatoes ⅛ inch thick.

    A knife slicing a Gold potato into thin rounds on a wooden board, with a bowl of slices beside it.
    Nice and thin.

  5. Toss the slices

    Toss the potato slices with the olive oil, garlic, rosemary, anise, salt, pepper, Parmesan and balsamic vinegar.

    Microplane the garlic rather than mincing it: it spreads more evenly through the slices.

    Olive oil being poured over thin potato slices and garlic in a white bowl.
    Oil and garlic.
    Grated Parmesan tipped from a small wooden bowl over the seasoned potato slices.
    Then the Parmesan.
    Balsamic vinegar poured from a small cup into the bowl of seasoned potato slices.
    A splash of balsamic.
    A spoon in the bowl of potato slices, all coated in the herby seasoning.
    Every slice coated.

  6. Stack them up

    Set the polenta rounds on a baking sheet and place 3 or 4 potato slices on each.

    A hand placing a stack of seasoned potato slices on a fried polenta round, on a lined baking sheet.
    A little stack on each.
    The baking sheet nearly full of polenta rounds topped with potato slices.
    Ready for the oven.

  7. Bake

    Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

    The baked medallions on the sheet, the potato slices golden and crisp at the edges.
    Out of the oven.

  8. Add the fontina

    Lay the fontina on top and bake 5 to 7 minutes more, until melted.

    A hand laying a square of fontina on top of a baked medallion.
    A slice on each.

  9. Finish and serve

    Finish with a little olive oil, the parsley, a pinch of salt and the balsamic glaze. Don't skip the glaze: it adds a ton.

    A bottle drizzling balsamic glaze over the medallions on a white platter.
    Glaze adds a ton.
    The finished medallions on a white platter, under melted fontina with balsamic glaze and parsley.
    Done.
A hand holding up one medallion, dripping with fontina and balsamic glaze, in front of a bag of Spud & Root Gold Potatoes.

Made for Potatoes... Everything else is Gravy!

Start with a good potato.

This one calls for our Gold potatoes. Grab a bag, heat the pan and keep an eye on the clock.

Gold PotatoesThe potato in this recipe. 5 lb bag. All four potatoesGold, Red, Russet and White. Next up: Coconut Curry Scalloped PotatoesRed curry, coconut cream, a golden top.

Step 1 of 9

Ingredients