Hello, Polenta

The premade polenta at my local grocery store is tucked away in a weird tower of baskets by the deli. It seems as though they’ve been put there as an afterthought, which is too bad since polenta can be made into a zillion tasty treats. I tried out this recipe from Martha Stewart Everyday Food the other night and although the overall result was beyond salty, I think with a couple of minor changes this could be really delicious. I subbed out real sausage for the fake soy sausage (the Gimme Lean variety) which could have been the super salty culprit, but who knows. Next time I’ll tweak the recipe by swapping in some carrots and zucchini for half of the sausage to balance it out more. The most time consuming part of this was the prep work, other than that it’s easy to throw together and you get to buy two food items that come in tubes, which is fun in a severely limited sort of way.

Makes 4 servings:

2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil (I just used some fat free cooking spray)
1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
1 lb sweet italian sausage, casing removed (I used Gimme Lean veg sausage-again I’d recommend reducing this to half a pound)
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
3/4 C marinated artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped (I just used regular canned artichokes)
Coarse salt and ground pepper (I’d leave out the salt and just use pepper, plus oregano and basil)
1 tube (18 oz) prepared polenta, cut into 1/4-inch rounds
1/3 C chicken stock (I used veggie stock instead)
1/4 C fresh parsley coarsely chopped (I left out the parsley)

I also would suggest adding:

6 baby bella mushrooms, diced

1 quarter of a red pepper, diced

1 small zucchini, quartered

3/4 C carrots, cut into rounds

Preheat your oven to 400. In a large skillet, heat oil or spray over medium high. Add onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add sausage and cook, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until browned, 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook until it starts to smell yummy, 30 seconds. Remove skillet from heat and stir in artichokes, mushrooms, peppers, carrots and zucchini; season with pepper, oregano and basil. In a 2-qrt baking dish, layer polenta rounds and spoonfuls of sausage mixture in a domino-like formation. Pour stock over top and bake until bubbling and polenta is pale golden, 20-25 minutes.