AAF’s Recipe of the Day
Written by Asinus Asinum Fricat on June 1, 2008 – 2:19 pm -In keeping with this week’s Italian theme, here’s a crowd pleaser, Polenta con Funghi (cornmeal with wild mushrooms), and as an added bonus, this does not take much preparation and can be done in minutes! Plus it’s a great vegetarian dish.
To get a selection of wild mushrooms, go to a supermarket and buy the following in 100 gr lots: oyster, shittake, black ears, cêpes & ordinary field mushrooms. At the same time pick up a packet of polenta, make sure you buy the fine grain as opposed to the coarse. You’ll also need to have 1 red onion, finely minced, 2 garlic cloves also finely minced, a little olive oil, 1tpsp freshly chopped basil and 1 tbsp freshly chopped parsley, salt & pepper to taste and a handful of sun-dried tomatoes which you can chop finely (this is optional, but believe me, it adds to this dish)
Place 1 liter of water, salt and pepper into a large saucepan, bring to the boil then slowly add the polenta, stirring constantly. Then add the tomato bits. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring often, until the mixture thickens (a hint if it becomes too thick: add a little softened butter, it will make this dish even richer).
Once cooked, spread the polenta mixture onto a Quiche Lorraine dish or suchlike and set aside. In the meantime, heat some olive oil in a skillet, and throw in the onion, garlic, stir for a minute, then add the mushrooms, stir and then add the herbs. This is a fairly quick dish, don’t overcook the mushrooms. If you like you can add a small dash of balsamic vinegar to the mixture to deglaze.
Cut the polenta into triangles, and serve with the mushrooms on top. Voila, nice and easy, with minimal fuss, a great Sunday night dish.
Tags: Food, Italian Recipe, Mushrooms, Polenta, Sun-Dried Tomato
Posted in Food, Recipes |
10 Comments
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Polenta is truly an amazing godsend. You can make fingers out of it, and bake with whatever you have on hand, you can stick some blue cheese on top and grill it, you can make sweet puddings (add sugar & molasses, or honey) you can also make crackers out of it, and you can thicken your sauces instead of flour or arrowroot. Then there’s another 1,000 uses!
For those of us who aren’t fluent in metric, 100 grams of mushrooms is about 1/4 pound. A liter of water is roughly 4 cups.
(I had to look up the grams->ounce conversion and thought someone else might benefit.)
I stuck a conversion site on our blogroll. I’ve been fairly confused over the years as to what a cup is!
A cup = 240 ml.
I cheat a bit and remember that 1 liter is about the same as 1 quart, so 1 cup (1/4 quart) is about 250 ml (1/4 1000 ml). It’s pretty close and saves me having to look it up.
Gad, I was just musing on polenta - and grits.
I love polenta.
I love cornmeal mush!
And I even love grits.
Your recipe is wonderful.
I may be having that tomorrow!
BTW, do you want to do the recipe of the day tomorrow? I have to motor to Killarney with the girls (it’s the long weekend here) and be a dad.
Yes, send the recipe on, and have fun in Killarney.
Now I’m dreaming of a cold winter morning and a nice steaming bowl of cornmeal mush with green chiles and butter. omg, I may faint.
Crank up the AC and pretend.
I just threw 2 pounds of rye seed in the back yard.
Of course, yesterday, I threw half a pound of sunflower seeds and about a 1/4 pound nicotiana out front.