Creamy Italian Polenta with Mushrooms and Taleggio

Italian polenta, if done well, can be a magical dish despite its simple flavors. With our easy polenta recipe, we show you how to elevate the dish from mere cornmeal mush to a dinner party show stopper.

Italian Polenta with Mushrooms and TaleggioPhoto by2foodtrippers

Who doesn't love creamy polenta?

It's a dish cooked in many countries in Europe in many different ways. We've eaten polenta cooked with nettles in the Italian Alps, with red wine and prosciutto in Ljubljana and grilled with tuna in Venice. We've even eaten polenta (called mamaliga) served with roast pork in Bucharest.

Can we say that all of those versions of polenta were outstanding? Not really since polenta can be a one note dish. Sure, adding butter and a generous sprinkling of Parmigiano to polenta tastes great, but a daily diet of polenta can empty your palate of all excitement. Or so we thought.

Then we traveled to Bergamo where we discovered that polenta can not only be comforting but also rich and exciting. We tasted creamy polenta finished in butter as well as also varieties that were served with salumi and mixed with all kinds of cheeses. We also tasted cheesy Polenta Taragna - a fun, rich version of the cooked cornmeal and buckwheat flour finished with locally-produced Taleggio cheese.

That rich, stretchy version of polenta was terrific. Washed-rind, soft Taleggio cheese enhanced the flavors of the polenta with its unique funk while proteins from the cow's milk cheese added a fun stretch to the finished dish. We loved the nuttiness that the buckwheat brought to the polenta, but we wondered if it would be possible to make a similar dish without buckwheat.

Once we got home, we put our new love for Polenta Taragna to the test and created an easy polenta recipe inspired by the Bergamo food favorite. We discovered that it's more than possible to make Italian-style polenta with cornmeal and a few other key ingredients.

In fact, it's relatively easy to recreate and eat Italian-style polenta at home. Hooray!

What Is Polenta?

Put simply, polenta is coarsely ground cornmeal cooked with liquid to create a digestible, comforting mash. Today, Italians use yellow, or sometimes white, cornmeal but, in reality, cooks in the boot have been making polenta for millennia with grains "like farro, chestnut flour, millet, spelt, and chickpeas" according to Wikipedia.

Many say that polenta takes a long time to cook but Cooks Illustrated created a recipe awhile back where the process was done in about 40 minutes in just water with butter and parmesan to finish. Those crafty culinarians proved that home cooks with a low fire, a four-to-one ratio of cornmeal to water and constant mixing can produce polenta that's both creamy and bouncy.

The best part about polenta? It's a wonderful accompaniment for stews, salamis and vegetables. In our case, we like adding earthy sautéed mushrooms to complete the comforting dish.

Ingredients

Our Italian polenta recipe has two steps - sautéing the mushrooms and cooking the polenta. However its ingredients are simple to assemble:

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal (coarsely ground)
• 4 cups water
• 1½ ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (finely grated)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2½ ounces Taleggio cheese (rind removed, diced in one inch pieces)
• 1 pound mushrooms (assorted)
• ½ medium onion (finely chopped)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ⅓ cup white wine
• salt (to taste)
• sprigs Italian flat leaf parsley or other herb (garnish)

Cornmeal

You'll want to use coarse ground yellow cornmeal for this Italian polenta recipe.

Merchants have marketed expensive polenta products, typically from Italy, aimed at consumers that want the 'best of everything' when they cook at home. Don't fall into their trap!

We've found that locally-made coarse ground yellow cornmeal makes polenta at the same level of quality as Italian cornmeal which can cost up to four times more money. If you can find coarse ground white cornmeal, go for it. That style of polenta is popular in Venice.

Pro Tip: Be careful not to use fine cornmeal. The result will be a clumpy polenta mess instead of a creamy polenta dream.

Water

Our recipe calls for a four-to- one ratio of water to cornmeal. We use tap water when we make this recipe at home.

Pro Tip: It's important to bring the water to a boil and then create a whirlpool as you slowly sprinkle in the polenta. If your water begins to boil too hard, turn down the heat on the stove.

Mushrooms

We recommend using the best mushrooms you can find.

In an ideal world, you would use fresh wild mushrooms like porcinis, chanterelles or morels in this recipe. However, we get that cultivated varieties like white trumpet and oyster mushrooms are easier to source. The good news is that simpler mushrooms won't severely impact the flavor of the dish.

The recipe will still taste great if you decide to use more common mushroom varieties like white button or cremini. You'll want to stay away from fresh shiitakes unless you love a super chewy mushroom texture.

Pro Tip: Cut the mushrooms a little thick - between a half and quarter inch. You'll begin with what seems like a lot of mushrooms but the tasty fungus will cook down and reduce drastically in size regardless of the variety you end up using.

Taleggio Cheese

Taleggio cheese is a special washed rind product from Val Taleggio in Italy's Lombardi region just north of Bergamo. Even though the cheese carries a decent fragrance (some would say odor), its flavors are relatively mild. However, this cheese carries just enough distinct flavor and stretchiness to make a luxurious impact on your polenta.

Taleggio is made from pasteurized and raw milk (depending on the producer and country of sale). Due to the cheese's mild flavor, the type of milk should not matter. In other words, a pasteurized version of Taleggio cheese will work just fine in this recipe.

Pro Tip: It's important to add the Taleggio cheese after you've taken the polenta off the heat or the cheese will congeal. Also, make sure you cut the sandy rind off the Taleggio before dicing the cheese.

Butter

A tablespoon of better adds extra richness and flavor. The key is to add the butter off the heat.

Parmigiano

You can use either Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano in this recipe. That being said, you can use alternatively use ungrated American-made parmesan in a pinch.

These cheeses don't just provide additional creaminess. They also provide a subtle undertone of flavor.

Pro Tip: You can use pre grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana-Padano but stay away from any pre-grated American versions of these cheeses.

Onions

You could hypothetically sauté the mushrooms alone, but we like to add half of a chopped medium onion to the sauté to round out the overall flavor.

White Wine

Nothing punches up the flavor of sautéed mushrooms better than white wine. Wine also deglazes the bottom of the pan, essentially removing all the caramelized onion goodness that happens during a high heat sauté.

Salt

We add salt to both the mushroom sauté and the polenta for flavor.

If you don't add salt to the polenta, your cooked cornmeal will taste flat.

How to Make Italian Polenta

The Italians have perfected the art of cooking polenta but the rest of us can make great polenta too.

We've found that cooking polenta over a low fire for 30 minutes softens the cornmeal enough to produce a creamy product. It's important to create a whirlpool with the boiling water and add the polenta in a fine stream. Once the polenta thickens up, we turn the flame down to its lowest setting and stir frequently.

We like to to sauté our mushrooms while the polenta is cooking. They typically take about 10 to 15 minutes to sauté. Another option is to sauté the mushrooms before cooking the polenta. If you choose that route, you'll want to place the cooked mushrooms in a warm oven while you cook the polenta.

Sautéeing the Mushrooms

Begin by heating up a thick bottomed, stainless steel pan over medium high heat. Add the olive oil and , after it begins to shimmer, cook the onions until they're just translucent.

Add mushrooms and a little bit of salt.

Cook the mushrooms until they've given up their liquid and begin to brown.

Once the mushrooms have browned and formed a fond at the bottom the pan, the next step is to add white wine.

Pour in the white wine and scrape up the brown bits at the bottom of the pan.

Cook the mushrooms until most of the liquid is gone from the pan.

Pro Tip: Keep the mushrooms in a warm oven until the polenta is ready If you're not immediately adding the mushrooms to the finished polenta. You can also pre-cook the mushrooms, place them in the refrigerator and warm them in a pan with a couple tablespoons of water for about 5 minutes.

Cooking the Polenta

Begin by boiling water in a 3 to 4 quart saucepan over high heat. When the water boils, pour the polenta into the water in a thin stream.

Once the polenta separates from the sides of the pan, turn the fire down to the lowest setting. Cover the pan and cook, stirring frequently.

After approximately 30 minutes, the polenta will be cooked. Take the pan with the polenta off the burner and place it on a cool part of the stove.

Mix in the butter and the Parmigiano.

Once the butter and the Parmigiano are incorporated, mix in small chunks of Taleggio cheese.

Pour the creamy polenta into a wide bowl.

Top with parsley and serve with white wine.

This recipe was originally published on 2foodtrippers. Consider subscribing to 2foodtrippers if you enjoyed it.