Polenta rocks, and I can’t get enough of it.  In my poor little wheat-free existence, there is a severe lack of grainy things that are chewy, soft, and a little gummy, like the sandwich bread you can roll into marbles.  That texture is gone from my life for good. 

Polenta isn’t quite marble making material, but it’s got a similar appeal.  It satisfies that craving.  Which is why we’re having Catalan Sauteed Polenta with Butter Beans for dinner tonight.  I made this a few weeks ago and loved it.

I’d never had butter beans before, and they are fantastic.  In Spanish, they are called habas grandes (I bought Goya brand beans), and they aren’t kidding about the grandes part.  Butter beans are HUGE, and have such a delicate, buttery (duh!) flavor.  They are also called lima beans, but the canned beans we had didn’t taste anything like the lima beans I remember as a kid.  I think lima beans are an immature stage of the bean and butter beans are a more advanced stage of growth, but don’t quote me on that.

We have a bunch of spinach from our CSA bag, and some left over from last week.  And since polenta has a long shelf life (when stored in the fridge), I keep a tube of it around.  So we have a delicious, simple, inexpensive meal ahead of us that’s low on calories and cholesterol.  Important, since I made these last week.