Polenta with Spinach & Sausage: Foodie Friday

Polenta with Spinach & Sausage

Polenta is a Northern Italian peasant food. Because it is Northern Italian and my family is Southern Italian we never ate it growing up. It is basically the Italian version of grits. Which I never had until I went to the South of the US because it is a Southern dish in the US. 

To make polenta you do not have to buy a polenta mix, regular cornmeal can be used, the coarser the grind the better. The following is a simple recipe for Polenta. Use polenta as a substitute for rice or pasta. You can put almost anything over it.

Basic recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/basic-polenta-recipe/index.html

Whatever polenta you have leftover roll it into a log and refrigerate it over night. The next day you can slice it and fry the individual pieces in olive oil and again serve whatever you like over them. I sautéed some leftover spinach and sausage to make this meal. 

Fried Polenta with Spinach & Sausage

by Diane Balch

prep: 10 minutes serves: 4

Ingredients:

1 Leftover log of polenta or Trader Joe's pre-made log.

1 head of spinach

1 dash nutmeg

salt & pepper to taste (red pepper flakes if you would like some heat.)

1 clove of garlic

4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

2 - 6 sausage: vegetarian or meat chopped or you can use mushrooms.

Directions:

1) Put 2 tablespoons of oil in  a cast iron or other non-stick skillet. Heat on medium high.

2) When oil is very hot add slices of polenta. Brown on each side, approximately 4 minutes per side.

3) Put polenta a side and add 2 more tablespoons of oil to the skillet. Saute sausage until it is no longer pink. Put on top on polenta.

4) After you remove the sausage add the garlic then the spinach and seasoning. Sauté until the spinach wilts.

5) Pour the spinach over the sausage and polenta and serve.

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Home Maid Simple

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Simple Living With Diane Balch

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 polenta, sausage, Italian Cooking, Spinach, Fried Polenta 

Related articles

• Slow Cooker Sausages Over Slow Cooker Polenta (myrecipefeed.wordpress.com)
• The Polenta that Ate Vancouver (colleenanderson.wordpress.com)
• Experimenting with Polenta: Using a Pie Plate (wellpreserved.ca)
• http://verygoodrecipes.com/italia