Mushroom & Sausage Ragu with Polenta

By -
Adapted from the latest issue of Cooking Light.

We had some friends over for dinner tonight and managed to throw this together along with a spinach salad with herbed goat cheese, apples and sugared walnuts and chocolate pudding cake for dessert. Did I mention that I made this in my electric pressure cooker b/c my stove blew up yesterday and threw sparks at me whilst blowing every fuse in our house. 3 times. Seriously. That aside, this was really good and I can hardly wait to have leftovers tomorrow.

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
8 ounces hot Italian sausage
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
S&P to taste
2 cups evaporated milk (or 2 cans plus a little water)
3 cups water
1 cup uncooked polenta
4 ounces goat cheese
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Heat a heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons oil to pan; swirl to coat. Remove sausage from casings. Add sausage to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Remove sausage from pan. (Add 1 tablespoon oil to pan; swirl to coat--only necessary if you use turkey sausage--pork sausage will render more than enough fat). Add onion; sauté 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms; sauté 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in sausage and tomatoes; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium; simmer gently for 15 minutes. Add S&P to taste.

In a small bowl, add one cup cold water to one cup polenta and set aside. Bring water and remaining water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add polenta and water mixtue, stirring well. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer 20 minutes or until thick, stirring occasionally. Stir in salt and cheese. Serve with sausage mixture. Save room for dessert. Next time I plan to make a vegetarian version of this using eggplant in lieu of sausage. Soyrizo would be a reasonable substitute but I don't think it would be necessary here.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I think the most impressive thing about this whole story is that you did all that cooking with an exploding stove. Gah.
11:32 AM
Kelly said…
That part really was crazy. An electric pressure cooker really did all the work for me but I still miss my stove. Thankfully the repair person is due here any minute!
5:58 PM
gwen said…
Hey lady -- I'm thinking about making this tomorrow because it sounds awesome. In the second paragraph, though, you say this:

Bring water and remaining water to a boil in a medium saucepan.

Does that just mean "remaining water" -- i.e., 2 cups? Wooo polenta!
10:21 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dayton's Famous Pine Club Salad Dressing

By -
Well, close enough anyway. The Pine Club is probably Dayton's most famous restaraunt--not that Dayton is some culinary mecca or anything. This dressing is traditionally served on an iceberg lettuce salad with grated carrot (boring). It's a shame, really, since the dressing is so good but that's why it's better to eat it at home on the salad of your choice. I like it over a green salad with blue cheese, apples/pears and toasted walnuts/pecans, it's good with pasta salad and it's also good on Isaac's broccoli salad. Serves approximately 8. 1 C vegetable/canola oil 3/4 C cider vinegar 1/3 C white sugar 1 tsp salt 2 tsp garlic powder 1 scant tsp red pepper flakes You can mix this one of two ways: either pour it all into a mason jar, put on the lid and shake the heck out of it or do it up with your stick blender. I recommend using the stick blender. Either way it's delicious. Refrigerate leftovers and note that it keeps pretty well. I think I had my
Read more

Pesto Tortellini Salad

By -
Why don't we just re-name the blog "Recipes Kelly Stole from Isaac's" because I seem to have no other recipes amongst my repertoire. Sheesh. Again, this is not really a recipe, but this salad was, and still is, one of the biggest sellers at the restaurant. As with all of Isaac's recipes, I've drastically reduced the quantity from the original (5 lbs. of tortellini, anyone?) 1.5 lbs tri-colored cheese-filled tortellini (or regular white ones, whatever), cooked according to pkg directions and gently rinsed with cold water 1.5 medium-ish tomatoes, diced 1/2 medium-size red onion, diced 1/3 C black olives (do yourself a favor and get some decent olives) 2/3 C or so pesto (I did a mix of basil pesto and arugula pesto) Dump all ingredients into a bowl and stir until everything is well-coated by the pesto. This is tasty when served immediately but the flavor will continue to develop the longer it sits. As usual, I added 2 handfuls of chopped asparagus but wi
Read more

mango soba update

By gwen -
A small note to those of us trying to eat more veg, as Kelly would say... this soba noodle salad is delicious with slaw replacing some or all of the noodles. I made it with just one little bundle of noodles, a whole bag of broccoli slaw, and half a bag of cabbage/carrot mixture, and it's great -- actually provides a delicious crunch and you don't miss the rest of the noodles. I cooked the chicken in a bit of the marinade, too, and diced it into the salad/noodle/mango mixture for some protein. Yum.
Read more