Sausage and peppers is a classic and weekday staple in many houses. This recipe lightens up the dish with chicken sausage and elevates it with polenta that really plays off all those classic flavors so well and will add a little variety to your meals.
Polenta! I don't have time for that!
Yes you do!
During the quarantine we tried to think of different carbs we could incorporate into our meal plans because in the initial panic of it all, the pasta, rice and bread shelves had been emptied. I remembered my mom use to get pre-made polenta and cut it into disks and sear it in a pan. I won't lie, it wasn't my favorite. I just ate it because my mom was following a food trend from the Food Network and it was healthy.
Left with no other options I grabbed the polenta off of the shelf and thought we will make it work. Well, we definitely did because now we can't wait to have it on our meal plans again! Pre-made products often have a bad reputation because of the preservatives and overall processing, which I completely understand and agree with, if we can make it ourself than I would rather do that to know for sure what I am putting in my body. However, the polenta we, which is Whole Food's 365 Polenta, uses only has 4 ingredients: Water, Cornmeal, Salt, and Tartic Acid, which is a natural acid that balances pH to make it shelf stable. All in all not bad at all and a great base for a wonderful meal.
I think where my mom would go wrong would be just slicing up the polenta and crisping it up-which if done right CAN be delicious (sorry mom, I love you). I really wanted a creamy polenta for this dish to act as a base for the sauce and to be all scooped up with a spoon. How do you make solid polenta into creamy polenta? There are two way and both are so ridiculously simple that this will be a staple in your house in no time.
The very easy way is to simply blend the log with your liquid and then heat it up over medium heat with your seasoning, salt, pepper and cheese should you choose to add it. Another way is to dice your polenta and add it to your liquid after it has come to boil, whisk it until it is smooth and then season it and finish it with cheese. That's it? Yep simple as that and delicious! The possibilities are endless and not just bound to dinner. We have had this with roasted veggies and yea you guessed it-an egg (we love our eggs) for breakfast!
