Polenta with Italian Sausage and Spinach Ragu

Don't you love it when you just stumble upon inspiration? When an "a-ha" moment appears out of thin air and the world comes into focus?

This happened to me recently reading one of my new favorite blogs In Praise of Leftovers. Specifically, it happened while reading this post. Go ahead, click on the link and read it. I'll wait.

I hope Sarah doesn't mind me quoting her here, but this is what got me:

“What people eat is not well documented.” ...lots of bloggers make special things to post or they are professional food stylists or bakers. What I really love is knowing what people bring to work for lunch (or what Wyatt had in the school cafeteria), what they have at family potlucks, what they scrounge for late at night.

What do people REALLY eat? The answer to that simple question is so much more interesting than the mountains of food mags, tv shows, and blogs out there. I find myself constantly asking people, "What did you have for dinner last night?" or "What did you eat on vacation?" I guess this blog has been all about trying to capture what we really eat instead of what magazines tells us we should, but her words just summed it up perfectly. Perfectly.

In the spirit of what people really eat, here's what was for dinner tonight. After a long weekend in Minneapolis (Yay Minneapolis!), we had no food in the house. I mean it. Check out the fridge. And the stuff in those Tupperware containers doesn't count, as it should've been tossed by now.

So to the cupboard and freezer I go and what do I spy?

- hubby's homemade Italian venison sausage

- half a bag of frozen spinach

- cornmeal

- can of tomatoes

We can definitely get dinner on the table with this. We can even slap a fancy name on it.

Polenta with Italian Sausage and Spinach Ragu

A simple, humble meal. Polenta is just thick cornmeal mush. I like soft polenta, but if you want it thick enough to cut into chunks, just cook it longer and/or use less water.

For the Ragu:

1 lb. Italian sausage, crumbled

1 medium onion, diced

4 cups spinach, chopped

One 28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes

Fresh or dried Italian herbs (oregano, parsley, basil)

In a large pot, cook sausage and onion until onion is softened and sausage is cooked through. Add tomatoes and herbs, chopping up tomatoes with spoon in the pot. Once tomatoes are broken up, add spinach. Cook a couple more minutes until spinach is wilted and mixture is heated through. Serve over polenta.

For the Polenta:

1 cup cornmeal

4 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon butter

Boil water on high heat. Add salt. Put an oven mitt on your hand and grab your whisk. Slowly pour cornmeal into boiling water, stirring constantly with whisk (oven mitt is going to protect your hand from splatters). Turn the heat down to low and continue whisking until thickened, about 5 minutes (don't let polenta burn on bottom of the pot). Remove from heat, add butter, stirring. Pour into serving dish and serve hot.