Pumpkin Polenta with Sausage and Fennel

Rach!
A morning show I used to listen to made fun of Rachel Ray all the time, especially the way the commercials for her show would always say, "Next time, on RACH!"
I have seen a few of her 40 Dollars a Day show, but not her talk show. She is strangely perky.
BUT-but, I love her magazine and I do like her recipes. And I have made a lot of them, and almost all of them have been extremely tasty.
On her website, there was a link for Fall Comfort Food. Now fall is my favorite season. And since I try to eat most foods seasonally, I get even more excited when fall food time comes around.
So this sounded really really tasty. I like sausage. And fennel. And polenta with cheese.
Some ingredient notes: Rachel always uses quick cooking polenta. I never see this at the grocery store. I see pre-made polenta which won't work, or the regular stuff which is corn grits/polenta. You are supposed to cook the regular stuff for 30 minutes. So if you use the real stuff like I did, you should probably start that before the sausage mixture.
Also, I just used freshly grated nutmeg for the first time! I grated it on my micro-plane which is really fast and easy.
And lastly, I used basil instead of parsley to garnish.
So try this out. Have it with some apple cider and watch the leaves fall.

Rachel Ray's Pumpkin Polenta with Italian Sausage and Fennel
1 Tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
3 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 14-oz can pumpkin puree
1 cup polenta (quick cooking or regular)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme (I left this out)
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup shredded romano cheese
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley (or basil) chopped
1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (Rach says to eyeball it!)

1. Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and brown the sausage. Transfer the sausage to a paper towel-lined plate. Add 1 tablespoon of EVOO (1 turn of the pan) to the skillet and then the onion and fennel. Cook the vegetables over moderate heat until tender but not brown. Add the wine and return the sausage to the skillet. Cook the wine away, a minute or so.
2. 2. In a large saucepan, bring the chicken stock and butter to a boil and stir in the pumpkin. Return to a boil, whisk in the polenta and stir until it masses together, 2 minutes. (Watch out for splatters.)
*For regular polenta, start first and cook stirring frequently for about 30 minutes.*
Remove the polenta from the heat and stir in the nutmeg, thyme, salt, pepper and Pecorino Romano cheese. Top the pumpkin polenta with the sausage and fennel. Garnish with the chopped parsley and serve.

Spicy Pork Tenderloin

I love pork tenderloin. If I want to make pork, 9 times out of ten I made tenderloin. I usually cook it in the oven or grill it. I have also made it for stir-fry. Sometime I would like to stuff it or butterfly it. Once I had a dinner party and made a pork tenderloin recipe from Under the Tuscan Sun, which has lovely Italian recipes in it. But I digress.

So here is what you need: a pork tenderloin, some seasoned salt (that is the Spike), ground mustard, chipotle chile powder, five-spice powder, garlic, red onion, and olive oil.

Here are the spices. I hate measuring when I'm not following recipes. The middle is seasoned salt, yellow is mustard, red is chipotle and the brownish is five spice. You can use a few teaspoons of each, I used a good amount of chipotle to make it spicy!

Smash a few garlic cloves with the side of your knife! It helps get your aggression out. Oh yeah and you can peel the papery skin off much much easier too.

Mix the spices and put them in a food processor with the garlic.

Chop your red onion and add it to the food processor. It looks so pretty!

Pour some extra virgin olive oil in there.

Blend it all up.

Put the pork tenderloin in a pan and pour the marinade on top. Spread it out evenly all over the tenderloin, and get the bottom too. Then stick a lid/silverfoil on and stick it in the fridge for a few hours.


After the pork has marinated for a while start up your grill. My husband is a firm believer of charcoal grilling, so that is what we use.( Especially since he does all the grilling.) It has such a nice smoky flavor. But use your gas grill if you must. Use a meat thermometer so you can see when it is done. It should be 160 degrees, so make sure you don't overcook. It doesn't take too long to cook.

Not the best picture...we were hungry! I served this with the Cheesy Sausage Potato Cups I had made earlier in the day, and some coleslaw.
It had a great spicy flavor, and the outside was nice and crisp, while it remained very moist and tender. I have to give my husband credit for the grilling, and myself the flavor credit! Ha