Our Monday La Cucina Pasta went on hiatus this week.  Neither of us felt like actually cooking.  I thought it would be nice to do something vaguely Italian and originally was thinking a baked pasta dish of sorts.

I needed a bit of inspiration and came across a fun recipe in my Mom’s Cook Book – Italian-Sausage Polenta Pie.  It fit the criterion for dinner tonight.  Italian and baked in the oven.  Plus I had all the ingredients.

That cook book is a lot of fun.  It really is a snapshot into what cooking was like 45 years ago.  Balsamic vinegar is unheard of.  A convenience product is Bisquick.  Someone really would make “Meat Loaf en Croute” using pie crust mix – and serve it or a special occasion.

Cooking  – and eating – was a lot more fun and adventurous.

So on that fun and adventurous note, I followed the basic concept but added a few twists and turns.  I had some homemade sauce in the freezer, so I didn’t need to make the sauce from the recipe.  I also added some mushrooms with the sausage and added a layer of cooked arugula in the middle.

And Mozzarella cheese.

It was perfectly ooey-gooey.  And I only dirtied something like 4 pots to make a one-pot meal.

Mom would have been proud.