A Great Weeknight Recipe Sausage and Polenta Casserole

I mentioned on Facebook that I made this great casserole last night and had a few requests for the recipe, so thought I would share the recipe here. It does not take too much prep time and the end result is mouth-watering good! I'd post a picture, but we ate it all up for dinner the last 2 nights. We had enough for 4 for dinner for two different nights, so serves 8. So here it is...

Sausage and Polenta Casserole

16 oz. Italian sausage 2 cups cornmeal
1 tbls. olive oil 14.5 oz. chicken broth
1 large onion,chopped ¾ tsp salt
1 large stalk celery, chopped 4.5 cups boiling water
1 carrot, peeled and chopped ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 can (28 oz.) whole tomatoes 8 oz. Fontina or mozzarella cheese

First, sauté in your Dutch oven 1 pound of Italian sausage after removing the casings. Brown the sausage while breaking them up with your spoon. My original recipe called for 8 oz. of hot and 8 oz. of sweet sausage. I did do that the first time I made it and it was yummy, but I had to buy 2 packages of sausage and my kids picked out the hot sausage, so this last time I just used one package of sweet! Once the sausage is browned, remove from the Dutch oven and then add 1 tbls. of olive oil. Add 1 large onion, 1 large carrot, 1 stalk celery, all chopped fine, and brown. Takes about 5 minutes. Add sausage back in and one large can of whole tomatoes (original recipe calls for roma tomatoes in puree, but can never find in standard grocery store, so just used can of whole tomatoes in sauce this time and it worked fine). Bring to boil and then turn down and simmer, covered for 10 minutes and then opened for 10 minutes. This last time I added a little bit of white wine before the tomatoes and a little salt, pepper, and oregano (but tasted great without those things the last time I made it).

While tomatoes are simmering, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Also grate about 8 oz. of Fontina cheese and set aside. Start polenta, after you relax a bit, as it only takes about 5 minutes! For polenta, start water to boil (4.5 cups). In large saucepan, mix 2 cups of corn meal, 14.5 ounces of chicken broth, and salt together over medium low heat. Add 4.5 cups of boiling water and whisk together until smooth and starts to thicken. Once thickened, add ½ cup of Parmesan cheese and whisk together.

Now just layer all your ingredients in a 13 x 9 baking dish. Lightly grease the pan, put in half of polenta and spread across pan, cover with half of tomato mixture, sprinkle on half of cheese. Then repeat. Save the last half of cheese and bake casserole uncovered for 15 minutes, add the cheese, and put back in oven for another 15-20 minutes. Last night I screwed up and put the cheese on before I baked, so I just baked for 30 minutes and it was fine. Let sit for 10 minutes then serve.