Recipe: this is the polenta of your dreams, so incredibly delicious
Have you had your heart broken? Cycled through pouring rain for an hour? Or are you simply completely done with the day? Whatever’s going on, sometimes all you want is to collapse onto the sofa with a big bowl of food on your lap. At times like those, this creamy polenta with mushrooms is your very best friend—especially with a glass of heartwarming Italian red wine alongside it.
Polenta is a traditional Northern Italian dish made from dried cornmeal or the coarser, more flavorful corn grits. You make the base by pouring the meal into boiling water and cooking it into a thick porridge for about an hour, stirring well. The simplest and perhaps most traditional way to eat it is to stir mountain cheese into the porridge and top it with a knob of butter. One hundred percent comfort food. We make it completely comfy by serving it with stewed mushrooms too. How delicious is this!
How to make polenta with mushrooms
1 Bring 1½ liters of water to a boil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan. Add the polenta while stirring. Turn the heat down low and cook the polenta, stirring regularly, for about 45 minutes until it becomes a creamy porridge. Stir in the butter and 100 grams of Parmesan and season with salt.
2 Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Stir-fry the mushrooms and garlic for about 4 minutes. Sprinkle the mushrooms with ½ teaspoon of salt, add the shallot and cook for another 4 minutes. Add the sage and three-quarters of the parsley during the final minute. Season with freshly ground pepper. Deglaze the mushrooms with the vermouth and reduce for about 2 minutes.
3 Divide the polenta between 4 bowls and generously spoon the mushrooms over the top. Garnish with the remaining Parmesan and parsley and serve immediately.
Polenta leftover snack
Do you have leftover polenta? As it cools, its texture becomes increasingly firm. You can reheat it with a little extra water to bring back that creamy texture. You can also cut the firm polenta into strips and bake, grill or deep-fry them. Season with extra salt if desired and you have a delicious leftover snack.
What are we drinking with it?
For the Northern Italian classic and all-rounder polenta, which is strangely little known outside Italy, we head all the way south for our wine. In the heel of the boot, in Puglia, lie the vineyards of Italian winery Masca del Tacco. There they make the delightful Susumaniello, a beautiful ruby-red wine named after the grape it is made from. Not surprising if you’ve never heard of this grape; this native variety was almost extinct, but thankfully has been replanted. Besides, Italy has an enormous number of different wine grapes. English Master of Wine Jancis Robinson even mentions more than 2,000 wine grapes in her Oxford Companion to Wine! The Susumaniello has a wonderfully alluring aroma of dark fruit. Give it a sniff, so lovely… Then take a sip: velvety soft and sultry. It’s truly a wine made to drink with mushrooms (also try it with a pasta funghi porcini or a mushroom risotto), and it also works well with BBQ food and, yes, mature (hard) cheeses. Do be careful, though, because 14.5% alcohol is no small amount. This is a big, bold wine in a beautiful bottle. For € 14.50, you really get something special!
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