Dan’s Blog

The other night I tried out the Polenta and Sausage Stuffing in preparation for hosting Thanksgiving. There were some problems. One was the consistency. Another was the texture. The final one was the flavor.

Let me back up. What makes stuffing delicious is that it is light, fluffy, and incredibly greasy. The strongly refined carbohydrate base (white bread, traditionally) combined with animal fat is like a slightly sweet lard suspension. Maybe you have some crunchy elements — like celery — but this is a dish that’s fundamentally about light, mildly sweet fat.

Polenta is a good bread substitute for this dish because polenta, at least when it’s homemade, can be very light and fluffy, and corn, when cooked, does have that mild sweetness that’s integral to the stuffing taste. The same cannot be said of, say, quinoa.

There were some problems with the recipe. Most importantly, the recipe didn’t allow for enough time for the polenta to cool, so it was more like a casserole than a stuffing. And a somewhat bland casserole, as Jessica points out.

So the final version will include some celery (for crunch), more cheese, including possibly some fontina, and I’ll probably make the polenta the day before. Should the recipe work well, I’ll post it in full.