Savory Polenta

Last night I indulged in one of my guilty pleasures, sausage.  Now I know sausage is super bad for you, which is why we eat it maybe 3 times a year.  For anyone unaware, cured meats like sausage and bacon contain sodium nitrite, which is a preservative, and when consumed with foods high in protein, like meat, the sodium nitrite can form nitrosamines which create cell damage.  So in short, studies show that consuming foods with sodium nitrite increase your risk of colon cancer.  So don’t feed your kids hot dogs routinely and check that theur lunch meats are sodium nitrite free!  And hey, I’m a chemist, feel comfortable blindly believing everything I have to say, but I do encourage people to do their own research.

So anyway, off my soapbox, with my sausage I decided to make a polenta.  I tried a new recipe for it, this one is from Alton Brown and it was really simple and turned out pretty good.  It was not at all pretty though, in fact it was so unappetizing looking I didn’t even bother attempting at taking a picture.  I am really working on trying to take better pictures, but this one was hopeless. Give me some time I’ll get there, it’s not as easy as it looks.

¼ cup red onion, thinly diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp olive oil

2 cups chicken stock

½ cup polenta

1 tbs butter

1 ½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 oz cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Heat the olive oil in an oven-safe skillet to medium-high.  Cook the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent.  Add the chicken stock and polenta and stir to break up any lumps.  Transfer the skillet to the oven and cover.  Cook for 35-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to break up any lumps.  Remove from the oven and stir in the butter, salt, pepper, and cheese.  I used Manchego cheese since I had some in the refrigerator leftover from a recipe last week, but you could use pretty much anything.  Maybe a parmesan, gruyere, or gouda.

Servings, 2 sides, 260 calories, 13 g fat

I know this is a crazy thing to say, but I actually thought this was too rich.  I actually couldn’t eat it all it was so rich.  I think next time I will cut back on the cheese and maybe the butter.  J didn’t think it was too rich, he had no problem eating his portion and what I couldn’t eat of mine, so maybe 1 oz of cheese won’t be too much for you.

So a couple days after making this I went to a restaurant and had the most amazing polenta that put me to shame, so I will be trying this again.