Yellow Polenta with Wild Boar and Mushrooms: a traditional Tuscan dish, perfect for winter evenings, but not only…
Heading to the Amalfi Coast for New Year’s, on December 28, 2019, we stopped in Pistoia for a night and had dinner at the excellent restaurant “Il Signorino”, where we had polenta with wild boar and porcini mushrooms.
Wild boar, being a wild animal, should always be “treated” before cooking to avoid it tasting too “gamey”.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 6 Hours
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Stove, Slow Cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 2.2 lbs Wild Boar
- 2 tablespoons Flour
- 14 oz Tomato Passata
- 1 teaspoon Tomato Paste
- to taste Juniper Berries
- 2.2 lbs Mushrooms (preferably porcini)
- 2 cloves Garlic
- to taste Parsley
- 2.2 lbs Coarse Cornmeal (or precooked instant polenta)
- 17 cups Water
- to taste Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- to taste Salt
- to taste Pepper
- 2 glasses Red Wine
- 2 stalks Celery
- 1 Carrot
- 1 Onion
- 1 leaf Bay Leaf
- to taste Thyme
- 2 leaves Sage
- to taste Whole Peppercorns
Preparation
Marinate the wild boar meat cut into pieces with red wine, celery, carrot, onion, salt, whole peppercorns, bay leaf, thyme, and sage for at least 6 hours.
Drain the meat, dry it, and lightly flour it.
Strain the marinade wine.
In a pan, sauté in extra virgin olive oil: celery, carrots, onion, garlic, sage, thyme, and juniper berries. Add the floured meat to the pan.
When the wild boar is well browned, add the marinade red wine and let it evaporate.
Add the tomato paste diluted in a little water and when the liquid in the pan is almost completely evaporated, add the tomato passata.
Sauté the mushrooms separately with garlic and parsley. Add hot vegetable broth if necessary, until they are fully cooked.
Prepare the polenta in the usual way. If you want to make it with coarse cornmeal, bring the water to a gentle boil, adding a pinch of salt. Pour the cornmeal gradually while stirring with a whisk to avoid lumps.Cook it on low heat for about an hour and a half.
Alternatively, you can use precooked instant polenta.
Once the polenta is ready, distribute it on plates and serve the wild boar along with the porcini mushrooms on a bed of hot polenta.
Notes
There are different types of cornmeal, the coarse type is the most widespread because it is the one “for polenta” and can be yellow or white depending on the pigmentation (variety) of the corn it comes from. White polenta is mainly used in the Venetian and Friulian areas.
