Polenta Sausage Stuffed Pepper Gondolas Ragu Recipes

SAUSAGE-AND-PEPPER RAGU OVER POLENTA

Steps:

• Heat a large skillet over medium-high; melt 2 tablespoons butter. Pierce sausages with a fork; add to skillet. Cook until browned in places, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Meanwhile, cut vegetables into 1/2-inch slices; add to skillet. Season with salt and pepper; cook, stirring, until browned in places, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste; cook 1 minute. Return sausages to skillet with 3/4 cup broth; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 4 to 5 minutes. Uncover; simmer until slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes more.
• In a saucepan, combine polenta, 2 cups broth, and 1 cup water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cook, stirring constantly, until thick and smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in 2 tablespoons butter and cheese; season with salt and pepper. Serve, with ragu, parsley, and more cheese and pepper.

POLENTA WITH SAUSAGE AND PEPPERS

Steps:

• Bring 6 cups of water to a simmer and add the polenta. Cook over low heat, stirring often, 45 minutes. Stir in the butter, Parmesan and olive oil and keep warm.
• Add the tomatoes, sausage, garlic, peppers, onion and crushed red pepper to a large cast-iron pot and simmer, 30 minutes. Serve sauce over polenta, topped with some ricotta and basil.

POLENTA & SAUSAGE STUFFED PEPPER GONDOLAS #RAGU

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350° F and place a pot with a gallon of water on high heat. Add 1 tablespoon salt and 1 tablespoon olive oil to the water and cover.
• Cut the four lobed green pepper in half through the stem to the base and carefully remove the seeds to protect the integrity of the pepper. Use a paring knife or scissors to remove the stem. rub a teaspoon of olive oil and italian seasoning on the pepper halves inside and out and place open side down on a cookie sheet. Place in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tender-crisp.
• While the pepper is cooking, heat 2 cups of chicken broth to boiling in a saucepan. Add the polenta and whisk in until smooth. Stir in the crumbled feta and set aside.
• Preheat a grill or grill pan to hot and grill sausages until done. Slice sausages on a bias.
• Remove tender-crisp peppers from the oven, turn over and fill halfway with polenta mixture. Top the polenta with sausages and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Place back into oven until cheese is melted.
• Heat Ragu pasta sauce and ladle some onto two plates. "Float" pepper gondolas onto the Ragu sauce.
• Place long fusilli 200 pasta into boiling water, uncovered until al dente, 8 to 11 minutes. Strain and place on plate. ladles on some Ragu pasta sauce and top with pecorino romano cheese. Serve with a side salad if desired.

CREAMY POLENTA AND GARLIC LEMON SHRIMP #RAGU

Steps:

• Combine the Ragu Sauce, garlic cloves and ¾ cup sun-dried tomatoes, (without draining the oil as you spoon it out of the jar), in the bowl of a food processor and process for several seconds. The mixture won't be completely smooth but the tomato pieces should be very fine and the garlic completely blended inches Reserve until complete with the polenta and shrimp portion of this meal.
• To prepare the polenta: Combine the polenta, stock, water, sage and herbs in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once it boils, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the polenta starts to separate from the sides of the pan, about 10-15 minutes. Stir in the butter, parmesan and goat cheeses and cheese two minutes until the butter and cheese have melted and been incorporated into the polenta. Transfer the cooked polenta to four serving dishes.
• To prepare the shrimps: Marinate in lemon juice and salt for a few minutes before cooking. Cook the shrimps in olive oil over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes on each side or until just pink.
• To finish off the sauce: Transfer the sauce mixture to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt to taste. Add a pinch of sugar as you heat the to give the sauce a nice balance.
• Turn off the heat, transfer to a bowl and stir in the olive oil. Spoon the sauce over the warmed, cooked polenta, top with shrimps and garnish with fresh arugula.

SHRIMP & POLENTA ITALIAN BOWL #RAGU

Steps:

• Cut bacon into ¼ inch cubes add to a deep medium non-stick pan sauté on medium high heat until bacon is crispy. Remove bacon place on paper towel to drain excess fat.
• Discard bacon fat from pan reserving 1 tablespoon add shrimp and cilantro to bacon fat and sauté on medium high until shrimp turn pink remove shrimp and set aside to the same pan add Raju sauce stir to pick up the flavors of bacon fat and cilantro reduce heat to medium cover and let it warm up.
• While sauce is warming up in a medium pan over high heat, bring water and salt to a boil, and gradually stir in polenta. Reduce heat and simmer gently, stirring frequently to prevent sticking until mixture thicken and is creamy add butter and cheese mix until well incorporated.
• To serve add ½ cup sauce to 5 bowls top each with equal amount of polenta, 3 shrimp each and sprinkle with equal amount of cooked bacon you may garnish with additional cilantro serve immediately.

AM'S SPICY SAUSAGE, ONION & PEPPER RAGU

Steps:

• Boil italian sausage in seperate pot with about an inch of water and cover.
• In 2nd pot, add oil, onions and garlic and cook til onions start to be tender (about 5 mins).
• Add all peppers and sliced tomato to 2nd pot.
• When peppers are close to done (tender), add crushed tomatoes, italian seasoning, salt/pepper, sugar, red pepper flakes and parmesean to 2nd pot and heat (add more parmesean to thicken a bit if needed).
• Check sausage to see if water is reduced and start to fry sausage.
• Add wine to sausage pan (deglaze) and scrape up bits with spatula, heat a bit. (Sausage can be cut too preference).
• Add 2nd pot to sausage, heat and mix.
• Put all ingredients in casserole dish and keep warm until ready to serve.
• Serve over rice or pasta.
• **Variation: Add mushrooms or green peppers**.

SAUSAGE STUFFED RAGU MUSHROOMS #RAGU

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400?.
• Clean mushrooms and remove stems. Finely chop the mushroom stems. Set mushrooms caps aside.
• In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons butter. Add chopped mushroom stems, chopped onion, and garlic. Cook until almost all the liquid is evaporated. Cool.
• In a large bowl, combine the mushroom mixture, sausage, egg, bread crumbs, salt, goat cheese, parmesan, and Ragu. Mix well.
• Stuff mushrooms generously with sausage mixture.
• Bake in a greased baking pan. Bake at 400? for 30-35 minutes or until sausage is no longer pink. Serve hot. Yield 12-15 servings.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE STUFFED SHELLS #RAGU

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Also preheat a medium skillet over medium-high heat and add sausage. Cook until slightly golden, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and set aside in a large mixing bowl.
• In the meantime bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add pasta shells. Cook just until el dente, about 8 minutes. Drain and set aside.
• In a small bowl combine ricotta and egg and mix well. Add it to the cooked sausage along with the arugula. Stir until evenly combined.
• Spoon just enough sauce onto the bottom of an 8 x 8 baking dish and spread to lightly coat the bottom. Evenly fill pasta shells with the sausage mixture and place in baking dish. Spoon remaining sauce on top of the shells, then sprinkle with mozzarella and parmesan.
• Bake until slightly golden and bubbly, about 35 to 40 minutes.
• Garnish with minced basil.

POLENTA PASTICCIATA #RAGU

Steps:

• Ragu Recipe Contest Entry.
• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Butter the bottom and sides of a 9" springform pan. Also fold a piece of foil around the bottom of the pan to catch any leaks as the dish cooks in the oven.
• In a large pot, bring water and salt to a boil over high heat. Once water is boiling, slowly whisk in corn grits.
• Reduce heat to simmer and stir frequently, to keep corn grits from sticking to the pot, until mixture is very thick.
• Stir the butter into the cooked polenta. Set pan aside, but cover the surface of the polenta with a piece of plastic wrap to keep the polenta from forming a skin on the top.
• In a large skillet, break up the Italian sausage and cook until it is browned and cooked through.
• Add the jar of Ragu to the sausage, stir to combine and cook just until it is heated through. Remove from heat and set pan aside.
• Pour half of the polenta into the springform pan and spread it evenly in the pan.
• Slice the log of goat cheese into equally thick slices (about 20) and arrange half of the goat cheese evenly over the top of the polenta.
• Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese over the goat cheese and polenta.
• Spread the arugula evenly over top of the cheese.
• Pour half of the sausage and Ragu mixture over top of the arugula and spread it evenly across the whole pan.
• Pour remaining polenta over top of the meat sauce and spread evenly in the pan.
• Spoon the rest of the sausage and Ragu mixture on top of the layer of polenta and spread it into an even layer.
• Arrange the remaining goat cheese evenly on top of the meat sauce.
• Sprinkle the 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese evenly over top of the pasticciata.
• Place the foil lined springform pan onto a baking sheet and slide into the oven to bake for 45 minutes.
• Remove from oven when cheese is golden brown and bubbly.
• Let the pasticciata rest for 20 minutes before removing the outer ring and serving. This will allow it to cool a bit and will stay together once the outer ring has been removed.