Cheesy Polenta Chorizo Casserole

I love one dish meals! Not that it only takes one dish to make them, but you don’t have to time three or four different items to be done at the same time. This dish is spicy, but you could use a mild sausage and skip the jalapeño and red pepper flakes if you want a milder version.

You will need:

Yummy polenta crust on the bottom!

• 1 1/2 c dry polenta (I use Bob’s Mill)
• 2 summer squash, halved lengthwise and sliced
• 2 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
• 1 red pepper, cut into small pieces but not diced
• 2 jalapeño peppers, finely chopped
• 2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 15oz jar of tomato sauce
• 6 links Logan’s Mexican Chorizo sausage, casings removed 
• 2 c low fat shredded mozzarella cheese
• Olive oil

Cook the polenta according to package directions and let cool a bit. Spoon about half into the bottom of an oiled 13x9 pan and pack down. It’s sticky and actually works best to use your hands to smash it down once it’s cool enough. Bake on 400 for 10 minutes, remove from oven and set aside.

Sautée veggies with a swirl of olive oil in a large skillet until soft but still a little crunchy on the inside. Add tomato sauce and red pepper flakes and simmer on low for 10 minutes.

Once the casings are removed from the sausage, cook on the grill for about 10 minutes on each side, remove and roughly chop with a large knife. Alternatively, you could just brown them in a skillet, but I like the charred grill flavor. (I also like to think that grilling it lets some of the fat drip out, but it’s probably not enough to actually make a difference.) Add to the sauce mixture and simmer for another 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, so that the flavors have time to mix.

Spoon half of the tomato sauce mixture onto the cooked layer of polenta. Drop half of the remaining polenta by bits over the sauce layer, and cover with about 3/4 cup of the mozzarella. It works best again to use your hands for the polenta. Spoon the rest of the sauce mix on top, followed by the rest of the polenta. Cover with the remaining mozzarella cheese and bake on 400 for 20 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

If you use the Logan’s sausage (very low cal for sausage) and a low calorie tomato sauce (RAO’s Homemade tomato basil) this ends up being a very low calorie but filling and delicious meal, coming in at only about 450 calories per serving if you cut into 6 servings. And they are really big servings!

Just out of the oven, I forgot to take photos of it half put
together, but the yellow bits on top are polenta