Whenever I am at the grocery store, I take a walk through the meat section and browse any sales. I always stop by the clearance section and before you even think, “Yuck, clearance meat?” hear me out.
It is usually stocked with items that are at the end of their sell by dates and it is a really good place to get really good deals. No plans for dinner tonight? Hello filet mignon for 50% off! If I am not planning on using the meat that day or the next, then I stock up my freezer. I especially love it when ground beef and ground turkey are my options because I can make so many different meals.
So I am looking though my freezer the other day and see I have lots of ground turkey. I want to change it up from turkey burgers or spaghetti sauce and it’s too hot for chili so I did an internet search for ground beef (I find it gives you more choices than ground turkey) and I came across a really yummy sounding recipe – Italian Polenta Casserole from Good Housekeeping. I love polenta and it’s something more out of the ordinary for us. Plus, this recipe calls for the polenta to be made in the microwave. It sounded easy and I had most of the ingredients on hand, so it became dinner that night. The best part is that the recipe specially makes enough for 2 casseroles. As I was reading the instructions, it says to divided into 2 small casserole pans and freeze one for later. 2 dinner for the work of 1? I’m in!
The only change I made to the recipe was substituting ground turkey. I also used Jennie-O turkey Italian sausage and it’s so delicious, you’d never know it was a fraction of the calories and fat. I sauteed these until brown, then transferred the meat to a bowl and drained any fat. Note: the recipe calls for 12 oz each of ground beef and Italian sausage. I had 16 oz of ground turkey on hand and adjusted the recipe to only use 8 oz of Italian sausage. The flavors were still excellent.
Then I started on the polenta. The recipe says it takes 15-20 minutes to cook the polenta so I needed to do some multitasking, keeping an eye on it while finishing up the rest of the filling. I had never made polenta in the microwave before so I was excited to try. It was so easy to combine the chicken broth, water, salt and cornmeal into a bowl and place in the microwave for 15 minutes. After 5 minutes, I had to take the bowl out of the microwave (careful it’s hot) and whisk until smooth. Then I placed back in the microwave and repeated another 2 times after about 3 minutes each. It thickened up a lot each time and I was able to whisk it again until smooth.
While the polenta was cooking, I added the onion and garlic and let that all mingle in the pan for about 5 minutes. Next, I added the can of whole tomatoes and let those simmer for 10 minutes while breaking them up with a wooden spoon. After the tomatoes are softened, I added the chopped eggplant and meat back into the pan and let it all simmer together uncovered for about 10 minutes, until the eggplant was soft.
When the polenta was done cooking, I took it carefully out of the microwave, whisked again until smooth, and then whisked in the Parmesan cheese.
Next I sprayed two 8×8 pans with cooking spray and spooned 2 cups of the hot polenta into each pan. The recipe says to spread the mixture up the sides, then spoon the filling on top of the polenta, and finish by making a border with the remaining casserole. I found you need to work fast because the polenta hardens as it cools and made it slightly difficult to get a pretty, even border.
Then the casserole we ate that evening went into a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes while the other got covered and packed into the freezer for another day. It was delicious and a nice change from the usual dinners we’ve been having. I hope you enjoy it too!
Italian Polenta Casserole
Ingredients
- 12 oz Italian turkey sausage (choose hot or mild depending on your preferences.)
- 12 oz meatloaf mix (veal, pork, and beef) or ground beef chuck I chose to use ground turkey instead and it was delicious
- 1 medium onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 28 oz can whole tomatoes
- 1 small eggplant (chopped)
- 4 cups water
- 14 oz can chicken broth
- 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cups grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- In a large pan, cook sausage and meatloaf mix on medium-high 5 to 6 minutes or until browned, stirring and breaking up meat with side of spoon. With slotted spoon, transfer meat mixture to medium bowl.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In microwave-safe 4-quart bowl, with wire whisk, combine water, broth, cornmeal, and salt. Microwave on High 15 to 20 minutes or until cornmeal mixture is very thick. After first 5 minutes of cooking, whisk vigorously until smooth (mixture will be lumpy at first); whisk 2 more times during remaining cooking time. Remove from microwave, whisk in cheese.
- In the same pan as the meat, add onion; cook on medium 8 to 10 minutes or until tender. Stir in garlic; cook 30 seconds. Add tomatoes with their puree; heat to boiling on high, breaking up tomatoes with side of spoon. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes. Add eggplant and meat; cover and cook 5 minutes on medium. Uncover and cook 10 minutes longer or until eggplant is tender, stirring occasionally.
- Spoon 2 cups hot polenta into each of two 1 1/2-quart shallow casseroles (8×8 square pan or 9 in pie pan works well). Spread polenta over bottom and up sides of casseroles. Spoon filling over polenta. Spread remaining polenta around casserole edge to form a rim. Work quickly as polenta hardens as it cools.
- Bake one casserole 30 minutes or until hot. Let stand 10 minutes for easier serving. Meanwhile, prepare second casserole for freezing and have dinner already to go for another night. Enjoy!
