Polenta with Sausage and Pork Rib Ragu

I have made this Polenta and Ragu on several occasions now. My first attempt was actually not mine at all but a generous Italian friend volunteered to come over and cook this hearty dish for some visiting friends. I loved the experience from top to bottom. My friends gathered in the kitchen and began preparing the polenta.

They had already prepared the Ragu in advance so all that was needed was the preparation of the Polenta. It seemed a little intimidating with the descriptions I had heard of copper pots and heavy bottomed pans. They brought a large pan of salted water to a boil and caused the corn meal to rain down from the measuring cup held a couple of feet above the pan. This step is to keep the corn meal from forming the dreaded clumps. Soon the polenta was served in steaming bowl accompanied by the sausage and ribs in a saucy tomato base. They topped it off with a generous sprinkle of Parmesan and served it up to our happily assembled crowd of friends.

I attempted it again by myself during a weekend excursion to Tuscany with a different group of friends. I simmered the sausage and pork ribs the morning before we left for a day of exploring. How happy we were to come home to a hearty, hot meal by the fire that was burning in the ancient hearth. I prepared the Polenta and it was ready in a matter of minutes. We gathered around the table and dove into the hardy hot meal set in front of us.

I did make one mistake with Polenta though. That is, one hot day in July I was invited to an outdoor dinner where everyone was to bring a dish. I knew there would be a lot of salads there so I thought “How nice to have something substantial like a big bowl of Polenta piled high with a savory Ragu with pork ribs and sausages!’ So I proudly placed my dish on the table among the salads. When it came time to eat, EVERY last man at the dinner party approached me and first told me how delicious my Polenta and Ragu was. But then proceeded to tell me with eyes larger than life, that it was the FIRST time in their lives that they EVER ate Polenta in July! I wouldn’t have been surprised if just one person told me this but there was a steady stream of people informing me of my Infraction of the law in Italian cooking. In fact groups of people talked among themselves how SHOCKING it was that the American made POLENTA IN JULY!!!

I was shocked that they were so shocked. So later I told one of my Italian students what I had made for the dinner in July and asked if she thought it was weird. She looked down to the ground and said “yes, a little….” I asked her incredulously “Why? Why is that weird?” She said “because it’s hot in July, you shouldn’t cook when it is so hot” So I said, yes, but everyone made pasta salad, so they also had to cook pasta over a hot stove in July, and you just told me that you cooked a pizza last night, so THATS hot to cook in July! She got big eyes and then said “You’re right, we are the weird ones….”

So I let it die but then later in August we were eating in a restaurant with the same friends who had chastised me in the aforementioned “Polenta in July” incident. The restaurant we were eating at served a big platter of antipasta and in the middle was a heap of fried Polenta, a favorite in Italy. Our friends were happily digging into the fried Polenta and I said “Wait, you’re eating Polenta in August!” My friend looked at me incredulously and said “this is fried Polenta, that’s different”. I said “But someone had to stand over a hot stove and first cook the polenta and then they had to stand in front of a hot stove to FRY the Polenta!” He just kept eating the polenta while shaking his head at the “unteachable” American. Oh, Italy!

Well, Since it is now November, I think it is again a socially acceptable time to cook Polenta so I hope you serve up a big steamy bowl topped with Ragu and eat it with friends. Even if they think you are weird, they will love your polenta and ragu!

Polenta with Sausage and Pork Rib Ragu

(Serves 8 people)

Ingredients:

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic, chopped

olive oil

1 pound (.5 kilo) pork sausages

1 pound (.5 kilo) pork short ribs

1 cup of red wine

2 small teaspoons salt

1/4 small teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

2 jars Passata (tomato sauce)(1400 grams or 50 ounces or 6 cups)

2 cans canned tomotos (800 grams or 30 ounces or 4 cups)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

Add chopped onions and garlic to the oil in a pan over medium heat, cook until transparent

Add sausages and short ribs, allow the meat to brown on all sides. Add the red wine and allow it to evaporate. Add tomato sauce and spices and allow to cook several hours.

Prepare Polenta as recioe states below. Serve the polenta and Ragu sprinkling Parmesan cheese on the top when serving.

Cooking up Sausage and Pork Rib Ragu with the help of a couple of jars of tomato…

Brown the pork ribs and sausages together then add red wine…

Add the tomato sauce and cook for several hours.

Polenta

Ingredients:

10 cups of water (2 quarts or 2 liters)

3 cups of polenta (500 grams)

1 small teaspoon salt

1/4 cup of butter

1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a pot of the water with salt to a boil. Add the polenta but not all at once. Instead allow the polenta to “rain” down while you whisk until all the polenta has been incorporated into the water.

If the polenta starts to splatter, remove from the heat and add a little water. Then reduce the heat. and continue to stir.

Once the polenta is smooth, start using a wooden spoon instead. You can add water from time to time to keep it smooth. Continue to simmer 20 minutes. The polenta should pull away from the pot as you run a spoon across the bottom of the pan. Add the butter and Parmesan, stir until smooth.