Sausages in Rosemary and Tomato Sauce with Grilled Polenta

This is my 407th post.  God, that's a lot.  I can't believe how much work I have input in this blog.  It's only turning TWO this February 1st but it already feels like a lifetime of cooking, photographing and writing.  Sometimes I worry about running out of words to write or willpower to do everything.  With all these 407 posts, I had my share of staring at the computer screen for hours that sometimes stretched on for days.  It happens.  Mental block because of lack of sleep.  For almost two years now, I always remind myself to sleep before 2 in the morning.  I can't because my words come tumbling out after midnight.  I'm not really the Cinderella type.  And most of the time, I worry most that I am boring the hell out of you. Just give me a nudge and I'll get your point.

Looking back at the beginning of blogging, my husband and kids had been and are always the protagonists in my cooking.  Gone were the days when my daughter ate everything that sometimes I had to restrain her from eating everything within her reach.  Gone were the days too when my older son was so picky with his food that it was actually for this reason that I started cooking like crazy.  My objective then was to make him eat.  Two years later, both kids have reversed their eating habits.  My daughter became extremely picky and my son eats almost everything that any Mom would want her child to eat. Oh, just please nothing blue or white. 

This is one of the very few dishes that both love to eat. Well, anything where there are salsicce (sausages).  They skip the polenta though, for that reason I had some leftover from the previous dish. 

If you have some leftover polenta, store it in a flat container with an airtight cover and flatten the polenta so that it will retain the shape of the container.  Refrigerate.  It should last around 3  days, well maybe until 4 if you want to stretch it.  When you are ready to cook, slice some pieces and grill them on a griddle.  You will give new life to your polenta.  And honestly, I prefer the grilled ones too.  I love the taste!

If you also have some leftover sausages from this dish, chop them to small pieces or put them in an electric chopper to make the job easier.  Put them back in the tomato sauce then warm up the tomato sauce.  Add the cooked pasta and toss them together in the saucepan for a minute.  It's another dish that will impress your palate. 

I always use ingredients with good quality and if you can, do it too especially when the dish doesn't require so much ingredients.  A dish with 3 - 4 ingredients rely on each other to give the desired taste.  With this dish, the quality of the sausages and the tomato pulp (not all canned tomato pulp can give tasty results so choose your tomatoes well) are fundamental.  I used canned datterini tomatoes for this and the tomato sauce came out extremely tasty. 

Buon appetito!

Sausages in Rosemary and Tomato Sauce with Grilled Polenta

Sausages in Rosemary and Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:
Serves 4

• 400 grams sausages (salsicce) of good quality, pierced with a fork or knife
• 1 scallion, chopped finely
• 1 - 2 twigs of fresh rosemary
• 400 grams canned tomato pulp of good quality (I used canned datterini tomatoes.)
• 250 ml. white wine
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt & pepper 

Directions:

1. On medium fire, sauté the scallion in a saucepan with extra virgin olive oil.  
2. When the scallion changes color, add the sausages.  Brown all sides.  
3. Pour the white wine and put up the fire, about 2 minutes.
4. Put down the fire and add the tomato pulp and rosemary.  
5. Cook for about 30 minutes or until the sauce thickens.  
6. Season with salt & pepper.

Grilled Polenta

Note:  There are different kinds of polenta.  The one I used is farina gialla per polenta (yellow flour for polenta) that is not pre-cooked so it takes around 40 minutes or more to cook.  The amount of water and salt also differ so please check your packaging on the suggested amount.

Ingredients:
Serves 4

• around 300 g. cooked polenta (Leftover polenta transferred to a flat baking pan and sliced to squares works well too.  If using polenta still to be cooked, please scroll down.)

• 300 g. farina gialla per polenta (yellow flour for polenta)
• 800 ml. water
• 1/2 tablespoon salt

Directions:

1. Prepare the polenta by boiling water in a big pot, preferably copper.   
2. When it's just about to boil, add the salt then slowly add the polenta by pouring it slowly in the water.  While pouring the polenta, stir with a wooden spoon.  Keep on doing this until you finish the polenta.  
3. Cook and keep on stirring for 40 minutes or follow the cooking time written in the instructions of the package of the polenta that you are using.  
4. Transfer the polenta in a rectangular baking pan with a thickness of about 2 cm. or about 3/4 of an inch (You don't need to be precise.).  Let it cool completely for about an hour.  
5. Slice the polenta to squares and grill them on a griddle.  Be careful in handling them so that they don't break.  Cook both sides until they are crunchy outside.