Oven-baked polenta crostini with mushrooms porcini or chiodini, a rustic and easy polenta and mushrooms appetizer, enriched with tasty mushroom sauce. How to make polenta? If you follow my recipe, you can choose between cooking classic polenta in the cauldron with longer times, or instant polenta ready in just a few minutes, then just shape it into a polenta block.
The base ingredient for making crostini is cornmeal, and for the sauce, mushrooms and chopped tomato pulp. You can prepare everything in advance and reheat the polenta in the oven just before serving. You can use fresh mushrooms (as I did) or frozen mushrooms, and if you want to mix things up, you can always prepare them with grilled champignon mushrooms. The tomato mushroom sauce I’ve prepared today is delicious spread on oven-baked polenta crostini or on squares of fried polenta. Before I leave you, here are some recipes to try, let me know how it goes, and see you next time!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn
- Energy 207.72 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 35.37 (g) of which sugars 1.31 (g)
- Proteins 6.99 (g)
- Fat 4.92 (g) of which saturated 0.62 (g)of which unsaturated 1.08 (g)
- Fibers 3.82 (g)
- Sodium 825.06 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 330 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients: polenta crostini with mushrooms
- 9 oz cornmeal (or instant polenta mix)
- 4 cups water
- Half tablespoon coarse salt
- 14 oz porcini mushrooms (or chiodini)
- 10.5 oz tomato pulp (chopped)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 bunch chopped parsley
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
Tools
- Pan
- Baking tray
Recipe
The perfect mushroom sauce for polenta crostini.
To prepare polenta crostini, first you need to make the polenta: choose between the classic version or the instant polenta, ready in 5 minutes.
Follow my recipe to see how to make polenta and make the polenta block.
Note: follow the quantities indicated above, which are sufficient for the crostini. If you have leftover cooked polenta, don’t worry, there are many leftover recipes you can make.Once the polenta is ready to be cut, cut it into squares about half an inch thick and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in a static oven at 392°F for 10 minutes when your sauce is almost ready.
Let’s take care of cleaning the mushrooms: cut off the earthy base of the mushroom, then scrape the stem and clean the entire porcini with a damp cloth. Avoid rinsing it under water, do it only if the mushrooms have a lot of soil and do it quickly, otherwise they will absorb the water. Once cleaned, cut the mushrooms into slices then into not too large pieces.
Note: if you use frozen mushrooms, this step is not necessary, proceed to the next step.
In a pan, sauté the garlic clove with oil, when it’s golden brown, add the cleaned and sliced mushrooms, cook for 7-10 minutes until well browned, season with salt and pepper, and add the chopped tomato pulp. Continue cooking over moderate heat for another 10-15 minutes, then remove the garlic.
Now all that is left is to take the polenta crostini out of the oven and distribute the freshly prepared mushroom sauce on each one. Finish by garnishing with chopped parsley and serve them hot. Enjoy your meal!
Storage and tips
Storage: polenta crostini are best eaten immediately, while still hot. You can prepare the polenta and sauce in advance and finish preparing them at the moment.
Tips: you can add some mint to the sauce.
The ideal mushrooms for preparing the sauce for polenta crostini are porcini or chiodini.
You can use either fresh or frozen mushrooms.
You can make the polenta block at home or speed up the recipe by buying it ready-made.
