polenta e veg*spuntature

Polenta is cornmeal. I don't know if in the non-Italian world, people do eat it, but it's very popular over here, especially in the North being a really nutricious, healthy and it-makes-you-feel-warm-inside food. Okay, I'm not from the North (Rome is in the "middle") but since I was a baby we used to eat it every now and then, probably the way it is kinda traditional in my city which is with pork ribs and maybe sausages. So....I veganized it and it was kinda success.

polenta con le veg*spuntature



ingredients:

• cornmeal (I use the instant one, it takes shorter);
• 3 cubes vegetable stock;
• 2 cans chopped tomatoes with their sauce
• soy TVP cut in chunks
• a coupla veg sausages, sliced (I used two leftover wieners)
• olive oil. a lot: you want it oily as if you were cooking something with greasy sausages in it. No diet today, this is a wintery comfort food!

Put water to boil with one cube of stock, when it's boiling add your TVP and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Drain it well.

Put oil into a pressure cooker, sautè your sausages until golden, add tvp and sautè a bit more. Add the tomatoes and two vegetable stock cubes. Close your pressure cooker and cook for about half an hour since you hear its hiss (of course you can make it without a pressure cooker, but you have to -at least- double cooking time). The ready sauce must be shiny with oil and smelling damn good.

Cook polenta -cornmeal- following instructions on the bag and serve covered with the tomato sauce and chunks of your TVP and sausages. You may add nutritional yeast to make it cheesy.

For even better taste, prepare you sauce the day before: TVP will be soaked with tomato and olive oil...yummy.

If you have some leftover cooked cornmeal you can spread it in a thin layer and grill it with a hint of margarine and some "cheese" the next day.