[Recipe] Gratinéed Polenta

I got this recipe in a delightful village between Nice and Piedmont. It's delicious - and rather quick to make. 

For this dish, I'm using the square dish (25x25cm) that I mentioned in another recipe. The proportions are perfect for it.

You'll need:
250 gr instant polenta
about 1 litre of water

a teaspoon of sea salt

1 onion

1 can of chopped tomatoes (400 gr)

about 150 gr of grated cheese (emmental works well)
pepper (if you want)
and salt 

Prep time: about 20 minutes
Cooking: about 40 minutes (in all)

Instructions:

1. Put the water in a saucepan and add the sea salt. Now, if you follow the instructions on your polenta packet, you're probably being told to wait until the water boils, and then add the polenta slowly, stir it for a couple of minutes and take it off the stove to thicken.

This works well, but... polenta in boiling water can have lava properties.

What I do now is that I start adding the polenta slowly when the water starts to bubble, and I keep stirring steadily until I've got all the polenta in. When the polenta starts to blob and go Vesuvius on me, I take the saucepan off the stove, and it's time to turn to the onion, which should be cut in tiny bits, whilst the polenta thickens.

2. Put half the polenta in the dish and add the onion:

Add some pepper if you want.

3. Add the can of tomatoes:

Add some salt, and some pepper (if you like pepper).

4. Cover this with the rest of the polenta:

5. Add the cheese:

and straight to the oven for about half an hour.

6. Bon appétit !