This has been a requested dish since I took over the Inn back in May of 2022. Use fresh herbs whenever possible, it makes such a difference.
First make the grits!
You will need:
- 5 cups of water
- 1 cup of yellow polenta ( I use Bob’s Red Mill)
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter (if you use salted, reduce the salt by a half teaspoon)
Now make the mixture:
- 1 pound of Italian sausage out of the casing (this can be a mixture of sweet and hot, all sweet, all hot or heck it can even be turkey sausage!)
- 1 large yellow onion (it doesn’t have to be yellow, I’ve used sweet onions and it’s wonderful!)
- about a half a stick of unsalted butter, cut it into chunks ( a little more or less is fine – although I wouldn’t use more than 5 tablespoons or less than 3 tablespoons)
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups of grated cheddar, Parmesan or a mixture of both!
- about a 1/4 cup of minced parsley or basil (or a mixture of both!) if you are using dried, cut this amount in half
Let’s assemble the goodness!
Grits:
- Make the grits by mixing the polenta, water, butter and salt in a medium to large saucepan. Let it come to boil over medium heat.
- Once it comes to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for around 20 – 25 minutes until they have thickened. You can add more water if they get too thick. When they are cooked, take them off of the burner while the mixture is put together.
Mixture, assembly and cooking:
- Preheat the oven to 400o and grease a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish or ramakins ( 6 or 8 ounces work best for this )
- Sauté the sausage in a frying pan, you can break it apart while cooking or after it has cooled. Once it is cooled, remove it from the pan and drain in a large bowl. (if you did not break it up in the pan, let it cook for a bit and break it up in the bowl)
- Sauté the onion in the same pan that the sausage was cooked in. Drain and mix with the sausage.
- At this point the grits should be cooled a bit. Add the butter, parsley, cheese and eggs to the grits and mix well.
- Add the grits to the sausage and onion mixture. Mix it together and then either scoop it into the casserole dish or into individual ramakins.
- For the casserole, cook at 400o for about an hour or until it is golden and bubbly, for ramakins it will cook in about 40 minutes.
This may be made a day in advance and kept in the refrigerator until ready to cook or you can freeze, uncooked, for a month. Remove from the freezer and thaw in the refrigerator a day before cooking.
Garnish with fresh basil, parsley or thyme and enjoy!