Recipe | Hayden Mills Polenta & Sausage

Hayden Mills Polents with Olympia Provisions sausages

This quick and easy crowd pleaser is potentially better than lasagna. It also uses the absolutely perfect stone milled polenta from Hayden Mills, our pals in Arizona. The polenta is so high quality that it shines as the foundation. Add cheese, sausage, delicious chopped tomatoes and ... well, more cheese, and you've got yourself a meal that will cause zero conversation at the table (because everyone will be busy eating). 

You'll need 

One Hayden Mills Polenta Kit (1 cup Hayden Mills Polenta, 3 Olympia Provisions Italian Sausages, 3 cups Aneto Chicken broth, 1 can Mutti chopped tomatoes, one wedge of fontina, cubed)

1 yellow onion, diced

5 cloves garlic, diced

4 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

Splash of red wine

large pinch of salt

dried oregano, to serve

parmesan wedge, grated to serve

Measure 1 cup of Hayden Mills polenta and 3 cups of Aneto chicken broth - add to a large saucepan and heat to boil, constantly stirring with a whisk. Make sure to constantly stir! It is important to not allow the polenta to stick to the bottom of the pan or to itself. After 2-3 minutes, notice the polenta begin to thicken. At this point, you can remove from the medium high heat and simmer with a lid on, occasionally stirring for roughly 10-15 minutes. Check on this while cooking your sauce and sausage.

Heat a large cast iron skillet on medium heat until warm. Add olive oil, garlic and onion to pan with salt, cook down until soft, then add the sausage after scoring each sausage with your knife. Cook sausage through and remove. Add full can of Mutti tomatoes and cook down with the onion and garlic - use a splash of wine to de-glaze the pan and continue boiling. 

Check on your polenta. If it has the consistency of oatmeal when you lift and drop into the saucepan, you are nearly done. Make sure to taste to ensure it is cooked all the way through. Once cooked through, remove from burner.  Add cubed fontina and stir in. 

Carve a hole in the middle of your cast iron skillet out of the tomatoes. Dump polenta in the middle, shave Parmesan and shake dried oregano over the top to serve.