Polenta, Sausages & Basil Tomato Sauce

Picked up a packet of polenta at the supermarket recently, I had eaten polenta a few times before at Italian restaurants but I had no idea how it’s made. I figured it is just the Italian version of Ugali made from yellow corn/maize, so I fired up google to seek sage advice from the interwebs. I learnt a lot from all of you on the net but I didn’t like that polenta apparently takes 45 minutes to cook, & it needs your constant attention whilst cooking. Also needed guidance on the liquid to polenta ratio, most people on the net seemed to use 4 parts of liquid to 1 part of polenta. With all necessary info gathered. I grabbed my polenta ready to cook, then noticed something interesting on the pack. It said “Instant Polenta”, then I looked at the side of pack it stated a cooking time of 8 minutes, wow! Instant polenta is pre-cooked corn meal for lazy people(like me). Anyway, I grabbed a saucepan into it I added 1 cup of milk & 1 cup of water then brought the liquid to a boil. Then added a 1/2 cup of polenta deftly to the liquid whilst whisking with my balloon whisk, this stops any lumps from forming. Cooked for about 4 minutes, polenta started stiffening up prematurely(IMO) & I was freaking out, decided to add a little milk to soften up the polenta. It kinda worked, then cooked for another 2 minutes, added a little more milk, then added a little butter then stopped cooking. The end result was a great tasting polenta but not as soft as I would have like it to be….. It was the first time I was doing it, so I get a mulligan.

Had the polenta with basil tomato sauce & farmers choice sausages, sausages by this company are special to every Kenyan, it is the first sausage most Kenyan’s have & the only one they will ever want.

The basil tomato sauce I made, is your basic tomato sauce with a subtle hint of basil. The way I made is below. You can use the sauce with pasta, pizza or whatever else you can think of. Cheers!

  • Dice about 4 tomatoes.
  • Chop an onion & 3 garlic cloves.
  • Add chopped onion, garlic cloves, bay leaf, two sprigs of thyme, 25grams butter & 15ml olive oil to a sauce pan. Sweat this for about 4 minutes.
  • Add diced tomatoes, 1 tablespoon sugar, few pinches of salt & 1 tablespoon of tomato puree, cooked for about 3 minutes
  • Add about 200mls of water, bring to the boil then simmer for 30 minutes.
  • Take saucepan of the stove, add some chopped basil into sauce. Basil releases its flavour quite quickly
  • Pass the sauce through a fine strainer.
  • If you want a thicker sauce consistency, return sauce pan & heat sauce to reduce it…..
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