Create a simple dessert using season’s best fruit

Turn juicy strawberries into a no-fuss polenta crisp

If you relish the ritual of strolling through the farmers’ market, hunting for the ripest fruit, this is your moment. Nestled in green plastic perforated boxes, overflowing in brown compostable squares and surrounded by a sea of trio packs, this season’s bounty awaits. Sample your little heart out. Farmers usually aren’t shy, eager to hand you a taste or even letting you choose your own. It’s an experience you won’t find in the sterile aisles of a supermarket.

With all that said, it’s safe to say I’ve been buying and eating a lot of strawberries as of late.

One way to enjoy them is through a straightforward, nofuss strawberry polenta crisp. It takes just a handful of staples, one of those trio packs of berries and a little tough love (in the form pulsing the polenta topping in a food processor). The oven does the rest of the work. The process is so simple that there’s not really a ton of explaining to do — and that’s what a fresh fruit crisp should be.

The other kicker in this recipe is polenta. It’s not just wonderfully super crispy; this buttery topping crumbles in your mouth into tiny pulverized pieces of corn reminiscent of the sugary topping on a cake. Think of the texture of demerara sugar, but smaller. It is a texture usually called grainy or sandy, but in the best sense imaginable.

It also does not require any of the age-old stirring as you normally would with traditional polenta cooking, chained to a tediously hot, bubbly pot. This crisp calls for using uncooked finely ground granules of what is known as quick-cooking polenta. Because of this, the texture is smoother than your average, coarse polenta.

Now, just imagine that topping atop juicy-jammy sweet strawberries and you’ve got yourself a great way to enjoy this bountiful fruit.

Christian Reynoso/Special to the Chronicle Use the juiciest, sweetest strawberries you can find for this simple dessert.