Pan Fried Pumpkin and Sausage Ragout over Creamy Polenta

This is a modified recipe from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian.

Clearly I modified it by adding tasty tasty sausage

1/4 cup neutral oil like grape seed or canola

2 pounds pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into large chunks

1 pound sweet sausage (hot would be fine)

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 large onion, chopped

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 tablespoons minced fresh chile or hot red pepper flakes to taste

1/2 cup red wine, vegetable stock, or water

3 cups chopped or canned tomatoes (use homemade tomato sauce to save some time)

Grated Parmesan cheese

Freshly chopped parsley

Put a few tablespoons of oil  in a deep large pot with a tight-fitting lid over medium high heat. Add the sausage to the hot pan and cook on both sides until almost done, 8 minutes per side or so. Remove the sausage from the pan and set aside. Working in batches, add some of the pumpkin and season with salt and pepper. Brown on each side; about 10 minutes total. Transfer to plate and continue cooking the rest of pumpkin, adding more oil as necessary. 

When all pumpkin is cooked, pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the oil and add onion, garlic and chile. Cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 3 minutes. 

Add wine and scrape any browned bits from the bottom of pan. Let liquid boil off and thicken, then stir in tomato and its juices. Bring the sauce to boil, then lower heat to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally until thickened, 10 minutes. 

Slice the sausage into bite size pieces and return it and the pumpkin to pot and let mixture come back to boil. Cover and turn the heat to a simmer. Cook, turning once or twice until the sauce has thickened more and pumpkin is tender, but not mushy, 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle with some  Parmesan and  parsley. 

I served this over Creamy Polenta and it was delicious. This polenta recipe has become my favorite. The cream cheese makes it so light and fluffy.