Sausage-Corn Bake

Back at work. The daycare has smaller groups and protocols and everyone is wearing masks and the toddlers are very confused by the masks on the adults. Some of them cried the first day. I knelt down and showed them my eyes above the mask, which are the most expressive part anyway, and said: it is still me. It is still Vanna. Thomas, who I have had in my room since January, reached up and pulled the mask down for one second to see my face. I let him. Then I put it back. He seemed satisfied. He is three. He has a remarkable sense of what is real under a surface.

I made porch drop-offs for Gloria and James every Sunday instead of inside visits. Six weeks of porch visits have become a rhythm. We talk through the screen for an hour and I leave food on the porch step and she leaves the bag she sends back in return. Every week she sends something: a container of soup, a piece of pie, the peach preserves from last summer, her mother old cast iron cornbread pan with a note: the cornbread is better in this one.

It is not being in her kitchen. Not being in her kitchen, not stirring while she watches, not eating at the table with James across from me, is a specific loss that I have been carrying every Sunday for six weeks now. Gloria said this week: I miss having you at the table. I said: I know. I miss it too. She said: this is temporary. I said: I know. But temporary is still the time we are in.

When Gloria’s pan arrived on my porch step I stood there holding it for a long minute before I went inside. It is heavy in the way that things passed down are heavy — not just cast iron, but all the hands that used it before. I wanted to make something that honored that weight, something that belonged in that pan, and this sausage-corn bake felt right: hearty and warm and the kind of thing you’d leave on someone’s porch step knowing it would carry.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 lb bulk pork sausage
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 can (14.75 oz) cream-style corn
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup whole milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
2 tablespoons butter

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Place a 10- or 12-inch cast iron skillet in the oven while it preheats so the pan gets hot.
Brown the sausage. In a separate skillet over medium-high heat, cook the sausage, breaking it apart, until no longer pink, about 6–8 minutes. Add onion and bell pepper and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Drain excess fat and set aside.
Mix the batter. In a large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, milk, cream-style corn, thawed corn kernels, and 3/4 cup of the cheddar. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined. Fold in the sausage mixture.
Prepare the pan. Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven and add the butter, swirling to coat the bottom and sides completely.
Bake. Pour the batter into the buttered skillet and spread evenly. Scatter the remaining 1/4 cup cheddar over the top. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the center is set and the top is golden brown.
Rest and serve. Let the bake rest in the pan for 5 minutes before slicing into wedges. Serve warm directly from the skillet.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sausage-Corn Bake — The Cast Iron She Sent Me