Comfort Food: Sausages on Polenta

I have had this recipe filed in my favorites, waiting for a cold night to make it. It was inspired by Marie from Proud Italian Cook, who whips this stuff up without a recipe. It's in the genes.

I am usually not a recipe girl, but having not much experience with polenta, Marie guided me through it. She said "Stacey, buy a box of instant polenta, add water and stir". Ok, I can do that.

My mother in law's family originated from Northern Italy, where they used polenta a lot instead of pasta as a side dish.
I always seem to order it in restaurants, but never make it at home! So here goes!

I cooked up some excellent homemade sausage studded w/ broccoli rabe and sun dried tomatoes that I had in the freezer. I browned them in a skillet with a little olive oil.
The only thing I did differently from Marie was I roasted my own cherry tomatoes instead of using canned tomatoes, which I often do for sauce. A little olive oil, kosher salt at 400 degrees until they burst.

When the sausages were cooked, I added the roasted cherry tomatoes, a can of drained and rinsed Italian Berlotti beans and some chicken stock to the pan to make some gravy. I cooked this for 2 minutes on low heat and kept it warm while cooking the polenta.

Now for the hard part (NOT!):

I cooked the polenta as per the package directions, and kept stirring until I got the desired thickness. I added fresh, chopped rosemary and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano & a tbsp of salt.
Throw the polenta in a bowl and the sausage mixture on top, and you have the most wonderful comfort food, prepared in very little time. My husband loved this too, he said it was "real stick to your ribs kind of food!".