Sausage Ragu, with Polenta

Kudos to Cooking Light for this recipe - REALLY tasty, and fairly easy to make.  Total time to cook, about 25 minutes.  We just used off the shelf  Stop and Shop Italian Sausage links - very tasty, with lots of fennel.... yumm.

Ingredients:
1 tbs olive oil
12 oz Italian Sausage - chopped.  If you get links - squeeze out of the skin.
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 cups coarsely chopped onion
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped carrot
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 1/2 cups water, divided
1 15oz can  unsalted tomato sauce
2/3 cup polenta
1 oz parm cheese, grated ( about 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley, for garnish

Directions:

Heat, oil in large, high sided skillet.  Crumble, and cook until browned, about 6 minutes or so.  Stir in pepper.  Remove sausage from pan, and remove pan from heat - do NOT wipe out pan.  Add onion, carrot and garlic to pan, Cook 7 - 9 minutes until tender ( add a splash of water if needed to help the carrots along), cook until tender.  Add sausage mixture, 1/2 cup water, and tomato sauce to pan, cook a couple of minutes .

While sausage is cooking, bring remaining 3 cups water to a boil in a medium sauce pan, and whisk in polenta.  Reduce heat, and cook for about 3 minutes until thickened, whisking frequently.

Serve pork mixture over polenta, garnish with parsely.

Enjoy!!