Mushroom and Sausage Ragu with Creamy Polenta

With the weather starting to cool off a bit, I had a hankering for something a little more hearty that I could still prepare on a weeknight. This recipe from Cooking Light incorporates mushrooms and turkey sausage into a tomato sauce to make a filling but lighter meal. The polenta is kicked up a notch with the addition of some cream cheese to add some decadence to the whole dish. I kept this recipe mostly in tact and just messed with some of the amounts for the ingredients. To see the original recipe, click here. Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 8 ounces hot turkey Italian sausage
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 20 oz sliced baby bella mushrooms
• 2 large (or 4 small) garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon coconut aminos (or soy sauce if not gluten-free)
• 2 1/2 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 3 ounces 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon butter

Bring chicken broth and 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a medium pot. Add the cornmeal, stirring well. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer 20 minutes or until thick, stirring occasionally. Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons oil to the pan, swirling to coat.Remove the sausage from casings. Add to pan and 3 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Remove sausage from pan and keep warm.   Add 1 tablespoon oil to pan swirling to coat. Add onion and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in sausage, 1/8 teaspoon salt, tomatoes, tomato paste, and coconut aminos and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium; simmer gently for 15 minutes. When the polenta is done cooking, stir in 1/8 teaspoon salt, cream cheese, and butter. Serve with sausage mixture. This really hit the spot! And it is really quite filling; not only did this recipe feed me for dinner, I had it for lunch the next two days! The mushroom and sausage ragu is full of flavor, with some of the heat of the sausage coming through still. Adding the cream cheese to the polenta really adds a nice creaminess to it that goes really well with the chunky ragu. So yummy!

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