This buttery, cheesy, and herbaceous Porcini Mushroom Polenta with a delightful flavour of wild mushrooms is a perfect for a lazy weekend brunch (or any other time of the day!)
Hello, everyone. How are you doing? Are you enjoying fall? Apples, pumpkins, pumpkin spice lattes (Is this still trendy?), etc. I am enjoying. In the middle of week we were expecting a post-tropical storm Teddy passing by Nova Scotia, but it wasn’t that bad. In fact, that was just a combination of strong rains and some gusty winds. I might be a weirdo, but I love this time of the year in Atlantic Canada (It’s the season of hurricanes and storms in September and October)! Well I am not talking about hurricanes (They’re scary) – mostly about stormy days.
I understand this weather could bring an unpleasant experience such as power outage and broken trees, but there’s something cozy about that. Fireplace (If you have got one of course), comfort food, hot tea, a cat (If you have one), a movie. Well, again, if you need to commute to your work instead all this cozy home situation, that’s a totally different story.
If you don’t like rainy and gloomy weather, some comfort food will always feel you better. So, I am happy to share this Porcini Mushroom Polenta with you, my friends. It is savoury, buttery, cheesy, creamy, rich, and the most importantly – easy to make. As for porcini mushrooms, they are sautéed in a creamy sauce, and as the result, this sauce gets emulsified and infused with a lovely sweet flavour of porcinis. By the way, check this Fig Polenta, too.
Even though it’s the season of porcini mushrooms, it might be hard to find them. They also could be rather expensive if cultivated by a mushroom company. The good thing is that you won’t need a lot; just 3-4 small medium mushrooms would be sufficient to infuse the entire dish. Also, you can absolutely use dried porcini mushrooms. you will need about 1/4 cup of them – just mix them with some water and let it stand for about 15 minutes, to soften and remove the dust.
Don’t have porcinis? Certainly, you can use other wild mushrooms or even button mushrooms. That would be totally different result, but the delicious result.
And as always with most of my recipes, you can play with this Porcini Mushroom Polenta, adding or substituting ingredients. Just a couple of ideas that would go exceptionally well with this recipe: crispy sage, 1-2 slices of prosciutto or pancetta cooked with mushrooms, pine nuts, and even blue cheese. However. always keep in mind that porcini mushrooms are utterly delicate, so be careful adding ingredients with stronger flavours like prosciutto or blue cheese.
I hope you like this Porcini Mushroom Polenta and give it a try any of the suggested option.
Cheers.
Also, check other porcini recipes:
Porcini Mushroom Polenta
Notes
The classic ratio is 1 part polenta to 4 parts water. For soft, smooth, and thin polenta use 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup polenta. For thicker one, use 1 and 1/2 (to 1 and 2/3)cups of water and 1/2 cup of polenta. You can always fix the texture by adding a little bit of more hot water or parmesan.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup quick (instant) polenta (~5 minutes cooking time)
- 1 and 1/2 to 2 cups water (See the notes)
- a good pinch of salt (for both polenta and mushrooms), to taste
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan
- 1 tbsp. butter
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 3-4 medium porcini mushrooms (~ 1/2 to 2/3 cup sliced)
- 1/3 cup heavy (35%) cream
- 1 tsp. fresh thyme
- a small pinch of smoked paprika
Instructions
- In a small-medium pan add the sliced mushrooms, and cook for 3-4 minutes (Cooking without fats first makes mushrooms more fragrant.) Then add the butter and oil, and cook for about 5 minutes,
- Stir in the heavy cream, a pinch of salt, thyme, and smoked paprika. Let it simmer and emulsify for about 10 minutes. Set aside.
- In a meanwhile, bring a pot of the salted water to a boil. Add the polenta constantly stirring with a whisk and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or as recommended on the package.
- Off heat and stir in the parmesan. Let it stand for a minute and serve topped with the sautéed mushrooms.
- Enjoy!
Damn! If only I’d see this yesterday Ben. I was at a bit of a loss what to make for a Sunday brunch. This would have been excellent. Unfortunately we settled for a bowl of soup instead. How boring eh?
Neil recently posted…Yellow Lentil Dahl
This definitely is awesome comfort food, especially for gloomy days for cheering up the soul! I’d love a big bowl of it ASAP! Pinning for later!
I totally agree with you, Ben – I’m one of those strange people that actually enjoys a good stormy day. And speaking of stormy days, comfort food like this polenta would be great on a day like that. I love the addition of porcinis here, and I’m thinking the pancetta would be a must, too. Also, we haven’t heard much about the dog and cat lately – how are they adjusting to the colder temperatures??
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