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Lentils with Summer Sausage

Ingredients: Summer Sausage & Lentils

  • Lentils (fresh or rehydrated)
  • Capital Summer Sausage
  • Mariano’s Italian Sausage (optional)
  • Parsley
  • Green Onion
  • Celery
  • Garlic
  • Olive Oil
  • Butter
  • Crushed Tomato Sauce with Basil
  • Chicken or Beef Broth
  • White Wine

Ingredients: POLENTA

  • Fine Corn Flour
  • Coarse Corn Flour
  • Dried Rosemary
  • Garlic Powder
  • Sea Salt

SUMMER SAUSAGE & LENTILS

  1. Rinse and soak your dehydrated lentils in water overnight before starting this recipe. Alternatively, if you have fresh lentils you can just use those instead.
  2. Bring your broth to a boil.
  3. Rinse and chop your parsley, celery and green onion. Add to a pan with about 5 cloves of garlic, minced. Add enough olive oil to make sure all the vegetables and herbs are covered, and set the heat to medium-low. Saute until fragrant.
  4. Add your hydrated lentils to the pan, and fry with the vegetables. Add a tablespoon of butter and 3-5 tablespoons of crushed tomato sauce with basil.
  5. Add boiling broth to the pan, one ladle at a time, until the entire mixture has enough broth to cover ¾ of the lentils. You don’t want the mixture to be too dry, but you also don’t want to completely drown the lentils in broth. You can always slowly add broth to your liking until you’re happy with the consistency. Also add about a cup of white wine.
  6. Slice your Capital Summer Sausage into ½ inch thick slices and add to the lentil stew. The sausage is already smoked and ready to eat, so you only need to heat it through! Make sure the sausage is able to be covered by the lentil stew, and cook everything together over medium heat until the meat is hot. At this time you may also optionally add some freshly cooked, or leftover Mariano’s Italian Sausage. Just make sure you don’t add raw meat directly to the lentil stew without cooking it separately first.
  7. Taste for seasoning, and add salt/pepper to taste. Stir and transfer to a serving dish.
  8. Enjoy with Polenta or any side of your choice!

POLENTA

  1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add a pinch each of dried rosemary and garlic powder.
  2. One at a time, slowly add your coarse and fine corn flour to the boiling water, alternating back and forth. You want to use roughly a 50/50 blend of coarse and fine flour. Repeat this process, stirring after each addition of flour to prevent clumps, until the polenta starts to take on a wet mashed potato-like texture.
  3. Let the polenta cook and thicken over medium-low heat until it starts to brown near the bottom of the pan, forming a light crust.
  4. Pour the polenta into a baking dish and smooth out the top (easiest with a wet butter knife!). Place in the fridge for at least 4 hours to firm. Overnight is best.
  5. Cut the polenta into rectangles and fry before serving. Lightly brown the sides of the polenta in a pan with olive oil over medium heat.
  6. Enjoy!

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