Thursday 17 October 2013

Funghi Porcini e Polenta Gratinata

Earlier this week I was beside myself with excitement after coming home and finding a basket full of porcini mushrooms on the kitchen table! A family friend and expert mushroom picker had kindly donated them to us after I had told him how difficult it was to source porcini in the UK and how, although I’d often used dried porcini in my cooking, I had never had the pleasure of being able to cook with fresh ones. After extensively quizzing my boyfriend’s mother on fresh porcini preparation I decided to experiment with a creamy porcini and polenta bake and was not disappointed! Again, this is a really simple recipe that delivers big on flavour. For those of you who are unable to source fresh porcini it would also work well using another variety of mushroom, such as chestnut, mixed with some dried porcini for that extra rich flavour.


 
Serves 4 as a primo

For the polenta

  • 350g polenta flour
  • 1.5 litres water
  • Large teaspoon of salt

For the filling

  • 300g porcini mushrooms
  • 1 clove finely chopped garlic
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley
  • 150 ml double cream
  • Salt pepper
  • Good-quality grated cheese (I used a mix of asiago and parmesan)

To cook the polenta bring the water to the boil in a heavy based saucepan, add the salt and sprinkle in the polenta flour. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon and allow to cook for 40-45 minutes. For those of you who don’t have time for this stage (let’s face it, it’s a bit of a faff really) you can also use quick-cook or ready-made polenta which you can find in most big supermarkets.

When your polenta is cooked, pour it onto a large, clean work surface and spread it out to a 2-3cm thickness and leave to cool. When cold, cut out the disk

s of polenta, one for the base and one for the top of each dish. I used a medium-sized, round oven dish for two people but, if serving for a dinner party, you could also cut out smaller disks to put into individual ramekins as a more elegant way of serving.

Clean your porcini by scraping them with a knife and wiping with a clean tea towel. If your mushrooms are really dirty you can give them a quick rinse under some cold water but be sure to dry them as quickly as possible as washing the mushrooms will make their flavour less intense. Separate the mushroom stalks from the tops by gently twisting them, then slice into fairly chunky pieces.

Heat the olive oil and garlic in a frying pan then add the mushrooms and let them simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Stir in the cream and parsley and turn off the heat then season well with salt and pepper.

Place a disk of polenta in the bottom of your greased dish or ramekin. Add a generous amount of the porcini mix and top with another disk of polenta. Cover with lots of cheese and grill for about 10 minutes or until the top is golden and bubbling!







13 comments:

  1. What a wonderful gift! When I was in Italy I stopped and stared at the fresh porcinis like I was transfixed. Here in Australia we generally only use dried ones too! :D Was the end result very different than using dried? :)

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    1. In terms of flavour I have to say I still think you can get a great result with some good-quality dried porcini but texture-wise they're completely different. I find re=hydrated porcini can be very tough and rubbery whereas these were very much like a meatier, earthier version of a chestnut mushroom. Apparently the strength of flavour depends on the size of the mushroom though so the smaller they are, the more intense the taste. :)

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  2. That looks wonderful Beth! What a fabulous gift! You are so lucky! Wonderful pictures! I feel like I could just dig in! xx

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    1. Thanks Marie, I have to say that the porcini were delicious! Such a shame they're so difficult and expensive to source in the UK! Then again, even in Italy, unless you pick them yourself, they're about 28 euros per kilo these days!

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  3. Yum! Gorgeous to look at and I bet it tasted great. I'll have to try it with some other musrooms. I have never had fresh porcinis either. I'm trying to learn more about safely foraging for wild mushrooms as there are lots and lots here in Maine! There used to be one farmer at the farmers' market who had lots of cool wild mushrooms, but they aren't a vendor nearby anymore. So I have to figure out how to do it on my own.

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    1. Yes, I quite fancied giving foraging a go myself but am a bit worried about poisoning people! Apparently porcini are quite easy to identify compared to a lot of other mushrooms as they have some very distinctive characteristics, I definitely need to go with an expert before I try and do it alone though!

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  4. This sounds completely divine. Now I know what to make should I be so fortunate as to get my hands on some fresh porcini. Yum!

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    1. Thanks Alanna! We certainly enjoyed eating it! Be sure to let me know how it goes if you get round to making it!

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  5. Hi, Beth. This sounds lovely with flavors we would adore. I am trying to figure out the photo though. Did you put the polenta disk at the bottom of the bowl and have enough mushroom filling to fill four bowls of that depth? Or perhaps it's a small bowl? Also, it looks like I can see the polenta underneath the mushrooms. I would love to recreate this great dish. I await your further clarification!

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    1. Hi Stacey, yes there are polenta disks on the top and bottom. I just did one bowl to share between two as I was just cooking for me and my boyfriend but you could definitely do smaller individual ones for four people. It's very rich so you don't need a lot!

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    2. Gotcha! Definitely giving this a try. Thank you.

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  6. This sounds like my kind of food and looks utterly delicious. Love the idea of having a polenta pie. Would love to try fresh porcini, what a lovely present.

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    1. Thanks so much! I'm sure that there are lots of tasty fillings that you could put inside the pie if you can't get porcini! I want to try it with beef in red wine next!

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