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This quick and delicious meal from the current issue of Cooking Light was exactly what I needed for dinner on a busy night. I don't like sweet sausage, so I used spicy and it was awesome!
Italian sausage and kale are topped with fresh mozzarella in this quick and simple one skillet wonder!
The only trouble I had with this recipe was that the polenta stuck to the pan, so the browned bits didn't stay with the rounds (but they did end up in the sausage/kale mixture afterward). I didn't want to use a nonstick pan because it needs to broil at the end. But it still tasted great!
Side note: I highly recommend topping leftovers with a fried egg, as suggested in the magazine. Pure awesomeness! Thanks to everyone on Instagram for all the love on this one, too!
Sausage and Kale Sauté with Polenta
Cooking Light December 2014
Serves 4 (serving size: 2 polenta slices and about ¾ cup sausage mixture)
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 ounces sweet pork Italian sausage, casings removed
8 ounces prepared polenta, cut into 8 (½-inch-thick) slices
6 ounces prechopped kale
1 tablespoon water
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ cups lower-sodium marinara sauce (such as Dell'Amore)
2 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, torn into small pieces
1. Preheat broiler to high.
2. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high. Add sausage; cook 3 minutes, stirring. Remove sausage. Add polenta to pan; cook 5 minutes. Remove polenta. Add kale, 1 tablespoon water, and pepper to pan. Cover; cook 2 minutes. Uncover; stir in sausage and marinara. Nestle polenta, browned side up, into sausage mixture; sprinkle with cheese. Broil 2 minutes.
Calories 260
Fat 16.6 g
Satfat 5.7 g
Monofat 6.6 g
Polyfat 1.6 g
Protein 10 g
Carbohydrate 18 g
Fiber 3 g
Cholesterol 33 mg
Iron 3 mg
Sodium 408 mg
Calcium 79 mg
Big Flavors Rating: 4 Stars
Alessandra // the foodie teen says
Looks absolutely stunning! I love those flavours. Gorgeous photography too!
BigFlavorsFromATinyKitchen says
Thanks so much, Alessandra 🙂
Amy (Savory Moments) says
This looks really good! I don't use polenta nearly enough in my cooking so this is giving me some good ideas 🙂
BigFlavorsFromATinyKitchen says
It's way underutilized in my kitchen, too! It's a great option for busy nights 🙂
Loren says
We were looking for something to do with sausage and kale that was not soup. Thanks for this great idea. We changed it up, using what we had on hand - grits instead of polenta went below the mixture, small pieces of regular block mozzarella covered the whole top of the pyrex I used to broil in. And of course, lots of red pepper flakes.
Ashley says
Glad this was a hit! The extra mozzarella sounds fantastic, though I’d be careful about broiling in a Pyrex dish - it could shatter.