Sausage Ragù over Creamy Polenta

9 Reviews
ADD YOUR REVIEW
Photo: Johnny Autry; Styling: Leigh Ann Ross
Hands-on Time
40 Mins
Total Time
50 Mins
Yield
Serves 4 (serving size: 3/4 cup polenta, 1/2 cup sausage mixture, and 1 tablespoon parsley)
By David Bonom
January 2012
RECIPE BY Cooking Light

Turkey sausage and bottled marinara combine for a healthy, quick, and affordable twist on this Italian classic. Serve with a romaine salad tossed with red wine vinegar and olive oil.

Ingredients

  • 3 (4-ounce) links sweet turkey Italian sausage, casings removed
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 cup finely chopped onion
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 1/2 cups lower-sodium marinara sauce (such as McCutcheon's)
  • 2 1/3 cups water, divided
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 3/4 cup instant polenta
  • 1 ounce fresh pecorino Romano cheese, grated
  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Nutritional Information

  • Calories 357
  • Fat 14g
  • Satfat 4.8g
  • Monofat 5.2g
  • Polyfat 2.3g
  • Protein 17.2g
  • Carbohydrate 50.8g
  • Fiber 3.7g
  • Cholesterol 65mg
  • Iron 1.1mg
  • Sodium 712mg
  • Calcium 137mg

How to Make It

Step 1

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage; sauté for 6 minutes, stirring to crumble. Remove sausage from pan; drain. Wipe pan clean; return to medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl. Add onion, and sauté 4 minutes. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Stir in sausage, marinara, and 1/3 cup water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 20 minutes.

Step 2

Bring remaining 2 cups water and milk to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat; reduce heat to low. Gradually add polenta, and cook for 3 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in cheese and pepper. Serve with sausage mixture; top with parsley.

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Ratings & Reviews

RDLevitt's Review

RDLevitt
September 05, 2014
Very good! My only complaint is that it needed salt (probably the point of the recipe, but if you're not watching sodium, I would add a tsp to the sauce). The polenta turned out creamy and delicious, even without a ton of butter like you usually see it. The ragu was overall good, and went with the polenta nicely. You could put it over pasta, too, I'm sure. I grated some extra cheese to sprinkle over top, which was a nice touch. Overall, a solid recipe I'll make again.

Rbourne143's Review

Ketamom
August 18, 2014
Delicious, made it exactly as listed.

sarakroe's Review

Rbourne143
August 12, 2014
So easy and so delicious!!

Ketamom's Review

KHawkins
March 17, 2012
This was delicious! I used wine instead of the water in the meat sauce. Also used pork sweet Italian sausage rather than turkey. Would definitely make this one again. Leftovers were just as good.

DaniLynnR's Review

sarakroe
February 13, 2012
I gave this 5 stars (with a few changes I made). I added 2 T. of basil and little bit of salt to the polenta (at the end of the cooking process). I also added a bit of basil and a little more garlic to the sausage ragu. Finally, I added some organic, no salt added canned tomatoes to the ragu. Very filling, very fast, and very delicious! I will definitely make this again.

KHawkins's Review

blackberrygirl
February 12, 2012
All four of my teenagers love this!

ChefKiki's Review

ChefKiki
January 31, 2012
N/A

blackberrygirl's Review

acoston
January 30, 2012
Very good - used Lucini marinara sauce from Whole Foods and LOVED the flavor. Felt the polenta needed something extra - added salt and could have used a nice dose of parm but tried to maintain the "light" aspect of the recipe. Both my husband and my daughter liked this recipe.

acoston's Review

DaniLynnR
January 21, 2012
This is great! A very filling recipe. We used hot turkey sausage instead of sweet because we like spicy food.