Pumpkin Polenta with Italian Sausages & Herby Sauce
This luscious, creamy, buttery roasted pumpkin polenta is the ultimate autumnal comfort food. Yes, roasting a whole pumpkin takes a little time but the accompanying roasted sausages and salsa verde-inspired herby sauce come together really quickly. You can always roast the pumpkin and make the purée a couple of days ahead (perhaps whilst the oven is already on for your Sunday roast?) turning this recipe into an easy 30-minute weeknight supper.
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Cut the pumpkin into large chunks and remove the seeds. Spread out on a baking sheet, cut-side up. Drizzle generously with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast for 1 hour until the pieces are tender.
Once the pumpkin is just cool enough to scrape it out of the skins transfer the flesh to a food processor. Add a generous piece of butter and 4 tbsp of the milk. Blitz, scrape down the sides, and add the rest of the milk. Blitz until smooth.
Turn the oven up to 200C and roast the sausages on the same baking tray for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine the polenta, 340ml milk, 600ml of water, the polenta and a generous pinch of salt in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Set over a medium heat, and bring to a simmer, stirring often. Cook, still stirring, until the polenta has absorbed all the liquid, has thickened, and is tender.
Stir in the pumpkin puree and once it is heated through, remove it from the heat. Stir in another knob of butter, the handful of parmesan, and season it to taste with a little more salt.
To make the sauce, roughly chop the parsley and capers, and combine with the extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, and maple syrup, along with a pinch of salt.
Serve the roasted sausages - two per person - on top of bowlfuls of polenta. Spoon over the sauce, and serve.
Ingredients
Available in store
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For the Polenta
- 1 small pumpkin, at least 1kg
- Olive oil
- Sea salt
- Salted butter
- 340ml + 8 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
- 120g quick cook polenta + 600ml water
- Large handful grated parmesan
- 8 Italian pork sausages
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For the Herby Sauce
- 1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tbsp capote capers
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- Sea salt