Recipes

• Apple and Blackberry Shortcake
• Drunken Brown Sugar Bananas
• Four Hour Olive and Lemon Scented Leg of Lamb
• Gorgeously Simple Broad Bean and Parmesan Salad
• Grilled Lemon Whiting with Crushed Peas
• Honey Roasted Figs with Butterscotch Sauce
• Just Yummy Peas
• Lemon Delicious
• Melting Moments
• Pecan and Golden Syrup Tart
• Polpette - Italian Style Pork, Veal and Sage Meatballs
• Real Shepherd's Pie
• Soft Polenta with Braised Mushroom Ragu
• Spaghetti with Pork, Fennel and Tomato
• Tuscan Style Slow Braised Beans with Red Wine and Sage
• Up-the-Duff (Tinny Impaled, Beer Steamed) Chook
• Wheat Beer Sozzled Pork Spare Ribs with Sage and Garlic
• Yoghurt Cake with Lemon Syrup

 

Soft Polenta with Braised Mushroom Ragu

1 July 2008

In parts of Italy, huge pillowy mounds of slow cooked golden gruel are spread onto large wooden boards, topped with sauce and perhaps cheese, and placed in the centre of the table. Family members mark out their territory in the steaming polenta, eating from the outside in. Tradition dictates that you should cook over a wood fire and only stir the polenta in one direction. As if.

Soft Polenta with Braised Mushroom Ragu

(serves at least 6)
Polenta tastes far better if cooked the proper, slow way. Use as an accompaniment to a ragu of some kind, like osso buco or the mushrooms below.

2 tsp salt
350g (2 cups) polenta
100g butter
100g (1 2/3 cups) finely grated parmesan

Cooking time: Allow over an hour

Heat 2 litres of water until nearly boiling then add the salt and sprinkle in the polenta, stirring constantly. Bring to the boil then turn down and simmer very gently. Stir often, using a flat-bottomed wooden spatula, for at least 40 minutes though an hour is even better. I stir every few minutes, keeping a lid on in-between to stop it splattering. If it becomes hard to stir, add a little more water.
Fold in the butter and cheese until melted and taste for seasoning. Serve immediately with the braised mushrooms, below.

Braised Mushrooms
60g butter
3 large onions, peeled and diced
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 kg large flat mushrooms, diced
375 ml (1 1/2 cup) red wine
600g crushed tomatoes, tinned is fine

Heat the butter and fry the onions until soft, add the garlic and give it another minute. Toss in the mushrooms and some salt and fry as well as you can until they soften right down. Add the red wine boil until nearly dry, then stir in the tomatoes, a good grind of pepper and boil down until thick and rich. Add some sage or basil for flavour if you like. Serve over the polenta.