Polenta with mushrooms and blue cheese
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Valentina Giorcelli
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- 400 g mushrooms
- 200 g quick instant polenta
- 100 g blue cheese
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 T extra virgin olive oil
- some fresh flat leaf parsley
- salt
- pepper
- some drops of lemon juice
Instructions
mushrooms
- This preparation of the mushrooms is very common in Italy, it is called: trifolati. You can use this way of cooking them for almost any mushroom, and they will do great as side dish any time. Get a large pan, add the oil, the garlic whole, and some stalks from the parsley (2 or 3). Let it simmer for 5 or 10 mins on a very low temperature. This way the oil will absorb all the flavour from the garlic and the parsley.
- Turn up the heat and add the mushrooms, sauteé them for 10 minutes at least, until tender but still with some body to it.
- When cooked, season with salt and pepper and add a couple of spoons of freshly chopped parsley. A little tip of the chef here, before seasoning add a few drops of lemon juice (3 or 4) to the mushrooms, it will make a huge difference,
- Prepare the polenta according to the instructions on the package. Just add a little more water to leave it more runny. Do not forget to season the water.
- Once the polenta is cooked, the dish is ready. Assemble it like this: a bog dollop of polenta in the center of the dish, a generous spoon of blue cheese (I have used a fresh Gorgonzola cheese, very creamy - not as hard as other blue cheese) , add one more dollop of polenta on top of the cheese, and let the heat do the rest. Spoon some mushrooms on the side.
- Ciao.
Notes
Mushrooms: I have used a mix of dried porcini and some frozen woods' mushrooms (they are not in season now). A quick note: when you use dried porcini or any dried mushroom, you need to let them sit in warm water at least ½ hour to reidratate them. Frozen mushrooms need to be thawed and squeezed of the water.
Polenta: traditionally it is made with coarse corn flower , water and elbow grease. It tastes good but it takes forever to cook (about 1 hr of continue stirring). We often used a polenta flour that is pre-cooked, we call it instant polenta, and it takes about 10 minutes to make. A good brand will taste just as delicious.
Polenta: traditionally it is made with coarse corn flower , water and elbow grease. It tastes good but it takes forever to cook (about 1 hr of continue stirring). We often used a polenta flour that is pre-cooked, we call it instant polenta, and it takes about 10 minutes to make. A good brand will taste just as delicious.
Recipe by Foodies' Place at http://www.foodiesplace.com/polenta-mushrooms-blue-cheese/