spring vegetables with lemon herb sausages, polenta and goat cheese
May 22nd, 2006The sausages are from the Fatted Calf, a local artisanal charcuterie known for corrupting strict vegetarians (according to one of their formerly veg employees). The sweet, tangy goat cheese is from Yerba Santa dairy. The vegetables are from the farmer’s market and the lemon is from my backyard. Penance for a fallen foodblogger.
Spring vegetables with lemon herb sausages, polenta, and goat cheese
4 cups boiling water, in a small saucepan
1 cup polenta
salt to taste
butter
1-2 TBS butter
1/2 large red onion, chopped
1 stalk & bulb green garlic, chopped (chop the leafy ends and save for seasoning the dish at the end of cooking)
2 small zucchinis (I used Cocozelle), halved lengthwise and coarsely sliced
2 small squashy looking (I used scallopini), halved lengthwise and coarsely sliced
3 small carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
1/3 of a medium eggplant, coarsely chopped
5-6 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, sliced into matchsticks
4 cooked Fatted Calf lemon herb sausages (or similar, these sausages are pretty small, a little more than half a pound), chopped into bite size pieces
1/2 lemon
goat cheese
- Into the pot of boiling water, stir the polenta until it begins to thicken. Add some butter (how much you add depends on personal taste and your willingness to eat vast quantities of delicious butterfat). Lower the flame to a low simmer and stir frequently as you work. The polenta should take about 30 minutes to cook.
- Heat a large cast iron pan or saute pan over a medium flame. Add butter when hot. When the butter has melted, add the onions.
- Saute the onions until almost transluscent, then add the garlic. Saute for a minute or two.
- Add the vegetables in stages, so as not to lower the temperature of the contents of the pan. I added the vegetables in three stages, waiting a minute or so between each addition.
- Saute vegetables and then allow to cook.
- You’re remembering to stir the polenta, right? And always in the same direction.
- When the vegetables are bright and almost cooked, add the sliced sun-dried tomatoes and stir.
- Add in the sausage pieces and stir.
- Season to taste with salt, pepper, and paprika. Here’s your chance to improvise with some herbes de provence, for example, which I didn’t have on hand. Squeeze the lemon half over the vegetables.
- Taste, correct seasoning, and turn off the flame.
Serve atop polenta and sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese.
Serves 2-3
May 24th, 2006 at 10:35 am
[...] Initially, both cheeses are sweet and mild, like cow’s milk. They finish with a soft tanginess, the kind you usually taste in goat’s milk cheeses, but much more subtle. This surprised me, as goat cheeses are usually so dominant. I do enjoy strong, tangy goat cheeses, but Yerba Santa’s cheeses stand out with their unusually delicate goat milk flavor. The chevre is delicious by itself, on a slice of bread, or crumbled over some pasta, polenta, or grilled vegetables. The Bodega is flavored with cilantro and green chile, a combination which dairyman Daniel Salmon says came to him in a dream. The combination of flavors is startlingly harmonious. The heat of the chile, the slightly bitter, slightly grassy cilantro, and the soft goat cheese all blend together wonderfully on the tongue. Try spreading it on a slice of thick country bread topped with cucumber slices. Dreamy indeed. [...]