White Bean & Mushroom Ragout with Polenta Cutlets

I made this ragout from page 73 of Moosewood Restaurant’s Simple Suppers. It was really good, very Italian.  The polenta in cutlet form (I followed the instructions on page 184) went over slightly more than regular polenta does with the kids.  For whatever reason, I haven’t gotten them convinced to really try polenta… they just sort of pick at it.  Beats me.  I hear that it is typically a kid favorite, but not our kids!  Our oldest picked out all the beans from the ragout, but after trying a tiny bit of mushroom- was done with that.  After seeing his big sister eat the beans, our 2 year old did as well.

We had some left over “real” Parmesan cheese, so I used a tiny bit of that.  The other reason is that after lots of experimenting with cheese alternatives- I don’t know of one that would be considered acceptable.  We have never tried a Parmesan substitute though.  I would rather go without cheese than do a cheese alternative, personally.

Next time I am going to do fresh polenta with more flavorful herbs (not pre-made plain polenta) and do thinner cutlets.

Maybe sweet polenta would be more of a hit with the kids (versus savory). Does anyone know of any kid-friendly polenta options?