Polenta with mushroom cream and bacon. A typical winter dish from the northern regions of Italy and beyond.
In fact, this food has very ancient roots, it is an archaic dish, one of the first cooked doughs of humanity.
It was certainly already used among the Sumerians and in Mesopotamia where it was prepared with millet and rye.
The most widespread today is the one made from coarse cornmeal (or buckwheat), and it has a compact appearance, yellow in color.
Today I present it to you with a creamy mushroom sauce, enriched with bacon cubes, which if desired, you can replace with sausage chunks.
These recipes are designed for you:
- Rest time: 5 Minutes
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Slow fire
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Winter, Spring, Autumn, Winter and Spring
Ingredients
For the polenta
- 4 1/4 cups water
- 1 cup instant polenta
- 3 1/2 tbsp butter
- to taste salt
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 sprigs parsley
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 10 1/2 oz mushrooms (porcini or to taste)
- 5 1/4 oz smoked bacon (or crumbled sausage)
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 9 oz ricotta (or cooking cream)
- 1 tsp salt (leveled)
- 2 pinches pepper
Tools
Here’s what we need to prepare
- Pot
- Wooden spoon
- Pan
- 4 Chopping boards or one large one
- Whisk
Preparation: Polenta with Mushroom Cream and Bacon
Put 4 1/4 cups of water in the pot with a leveled teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil.
When the water boils, remove the pot from the heat and pour the instant polenta in a thin stream, stirring quickly with a whisk to avoid lumps.
Put the pot back on the heat and cook the polenta for about 8 minutes over low heat.
Turn off the heat, add the butter, and stir so that it melts with the heat.
Being instant polenta, it initially seems a little more liquid, so it’s advisable to wait a few minutes in the pot and in the meantime prepare the porcini mushroom and bacon sauce.
Clean all the porcini mushrooms by removing excess soil with a small knife or a clean, dry cloth, but without rinsing them under water.
Alternatively, you can use the ones you find or if using frozen mushrooms, you don’t need to thaw them, but you can use them as is.
If instead you opt for dried mushrooms, use at least 80 g and you should soak them before putting the polenta on the stove.
Slice the mushrooms, put 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and a chopped garlic clove in a non-stick pan, and let them flavor for 2 minutes.
Add the bacon cubes, and brown them for 1 minute then add the porcini mushrooms and cook them over high heat for 5 minutes, then salt, lower the heat and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
Add the cornstarch diluted in a cup of water, the ricotta or cream.
Click here to see how I make ricotta
Put on the stove and stir until you get a thick and creamy sauce.
When the cooking of the mushrooms is finished, turn off the heat, add the chopped parsley and stir.
Serve with the mushroom and bacon sauce on a wooden board.
Here is the Polenta with mushroom cream and bacon ready
Tognana Stone&Wood Set of 3 pans, Aluminum
I find them very good and they are ideal for this sauce.
Storage and tips
Polenta with mushroom cream and bacon, You can store it separated from the sauce, for up to 3 days in the fridge, then you need to slice it and fry or heat it in the oven, adding the sauce on top.
