Baked Polenta with Sausage
If there’s one thing I love, it’s an easy dinner. I’m so busy during the week, taking the kids to and from their various activities, that making something simple always makes me happy. I make a variety of things from taco salads to roasted chicken to pastas. Anything that takes a minimal amount of time and tastes delicious.
The dinners that make my boys happiest are recipes that include ground beef or pork and pasta, polenta or rice. For some reason if the protein is ground with plenty of spices, the boys can’t get enough. If however it’s a chicken breast or a pork chop, the boys won’t touch it. That’s why a lot of times I’ll use ground pork, beef or chicken i my recipes… anything to get the boys to clean those plates. Once I know I’m using a ground protein, I look for it to be a dinner I can get in the oven and on the table in under an hour. Under 30 minutes is even better, but unfortunately not nearly as common. Well, this recipe can be thrown together in about 30 minutes which means it’s now at the top of my dinner list… especially on those nights when both boys are out until six o’clock.
What makes this dish so good and so easy is the premade polenta. Now, you all know how much I love to make things from scratch, but that doesn’t mean I don’t take the occasional shortcut. I love shortcuts. Especially if it doesn’t hamper the final product. Well, those polenta tubes you find at the grocery store are one such shortcut. I use them all the time! They’re so easy and delicious, especially when fried up and added to a flavorful protein. You simply take the tube, slice, fry and you’re done. It’s seriously that easy. Add those little rounds to any protein and you have a full meal without any extra work.
Yes, I still make polenta from scratch, but any time I want it as part of the main course, I use the premade stuff. When coupled with ground beef (or turkey), this dish makes for a simple dinner that’s a great alternative to a heavy pasta. That combination is also a guarantee that my boys will clean those plates, and at the end of the day, that’s all I really want.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- salt and ground pepper
- 1 tube (18 ounces) prepared polenta, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
- 1/3 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a large skillet, heat oil over medium. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add sausage and cook, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until browned, about 8 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.
- In a 2-quart baking dish, layer polenta rounds with spoonfuls of sausage mixture. Pour stock over the top and bake until bubbling and polenta is golden, 20 to 25 minutes.
- Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
