Mushroom Polenta with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

I have a tendency to over-buy ingredients when cooking for more than just myself, but my dad has this problem to the umpteenth degree. I was lucky to profit from this when I was home the other day and my dad bought about quadruple the amount of sausage needed for a recipe my mom was cooking. They sent me back to Brooklyn with the rest of the sausage. It was garlic and pork sausage and came from Frank and Maria's Italian Pork Store in Bay Shore, Long Island. Nice place.

I'd never even heard of garlic pork sausage before! It was good, but I imagine you could use any kind of sausage for this dish, as I just threw it in with some other ingredients. I'm not sure where I got the idea to use polenta, but it worked. You can really play around a lot with the ingredients... add more or less salt and pepper, change the spices, switch up the veggies, etc.

This recipe could probably feed about 4 people for dinner.

Ingredients

For the polenta:

2 cups dried polenta (ground cornmeal)
6 cups water
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 package mushrooms, sliced and sauteed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (or a mix of dried rosemary and thyme)
Salt and pepper, to taste

For the rest:

1 bunch broccoli rabe (about a pound), chopped and ends trimmed about an inch
2 cloves garlic, slivered
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 - 1 1/2 pound(s) sausage
Grated cheese (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place sausage in an oven safe dish and cook for about 40 minutes or until the sausage starts to brown. When finished cooking, cut sausage into 1 inch pieces.

2. Meanwhile, bring water and 1 teaspoon salt to boil in a large pot. Stir in dried polenta. Reduce heat to low and let simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes. Stir frequently; the polenta will get very thick.

3. While keeping an eye on/stirring the polenta, saute mushrooms in about a tablespoon of olive oil until tender.

4. In a separate pan, saute the broccoli rabe and slivered garlic in 3 tablespoons of olive oil, until broccoli rabe is tender (or still a little crunchy, if you prefer that). Season both mushrooms and broccoli rabe with salt and pepper.

5. When polenta is about ready, stir in mushrooms, minced garlic, and Italian seasoning (or other seasonings). Add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Top polenta with sausage and broccoli rabe. Add some grated cheese if you like!

Whole Wheat Penne with Broccoli Rabe, Walnuts, and Cheese

This Epicurious recipe for Penne with Broccoli Rabe, Walnuts, and Pecorino was really simple to make and made a pretty good weeknight meal. I'm a big fan of broccoli rabe (which you can surprisingly find at Key Foods) and I love recipes that are basically an entire meal in one dish, so this hit the spot.

A few notes: I used whipping cream because I had some on hand, but it made the sauce a little runny, so I'd probably use the suggested creme fraiche next time. Something about the cream sauce mixing with the lemon zest made for a weird taste the next day, but maybe that was just me.

To "stem" the broccoli rabe, just cut off any part of the bottom of the stem that looks kind of gnarly. As for the cheese, you could probably use any kind of hard cheese, but Pecorino seems best because it is so salty. For the walnuts... I'm not quite sure exactly how they are supposed to be toasted, but sticking them in a pan on medium heat for a little bit seemed to do the trick. Last but not least, the lemon was a nice touch, but it could use a little bit more.

Besides using whole wheat penne and adding more garlic, I don't think I made any big changes to the recipe, so here it is, from Epicurious:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
2 1/2 cups chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only; about 2 large)
2 large bunches broccoli rabe, stemmed and coarsely chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled
3/4 cup vegetable broth
1/3 cup creme frache
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, divided
1 pound penne
1 1/2 cups walnut halves, toasted

Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add leeks and sauté until golden and soft, about 5 minutes. Add broccoli rabe and sauté, tossing with tongs, until slightly softened and bright green. Add garlic and stir for about 1 minute. Stir in broth, creme frache, and lemon peel, then 1/3 cup cheese.
Season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, cook penne in a large pot of boiling salted water until almost done. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking liquid. Return pasta to pot. Stir in broccoli rabe mixture and walnuts, adding 1/2 cup cooking liquid to moisten and adding more by tablespoonfuls if needed. Add extra cheese!