Supper at Joe’s: Sausage & lentil ragu with polenta
SERVES 2 adults + 2 small kids
PREPARE: 5 minutes
COOK: 25 minutes
FREEZE THE RAGU
6 best-quality sausages
a little olive oil, for frying (optional)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 onion, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, grated
1 celery stick, finely chopped
1 tbsp fennel seeds, coarsely ground in a mortar and pestle
needles from 2 rosemary sprigs, finely chopped
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
200g passata
250g pouch of good-quality cooked puy lentils
salt and pepper
600ml milk
170g instant polenta
40g parmesan, grated
- Squeeze the sausage meat from the skins of the sausages, keeping the meat and discarding the skins.
- Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat, add the sausage meat and cook for a couple of minutes, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon as you cook. If your sausages are on the leaner side, you may need to add a splash of oil to the pan, but most should start to release their own fat.
- When the sausage meat is almost cooked, add the garlic, onion, carrots, celery, fennel seeds and rosemary and cook for a further 8-10 minutes until the vegetables have softened.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, passata and lentils, season to taste and leave to blip away while you prepare the polenta.
- Heat the milk in a medium saucepan until just boiling, then lower the heat and slowly trickle in the polenta, stirring as you go. Cook for about 2 minutes until the grains are cooked and the consistency is thicker. Stir in the parmesan and season to taste.
- Spread the polenta out on plates or in bowls then top with the sausage ragu to serve.