Polenta & Mushroom Sauce

Polenta & Mushroom Sauce

The word Polenta is Italian and means pollen fine crushed flour. It can be mush made from chestnut flour, hulled barley, corn meal, semolina, or farina.

I spotted this recipe in October edition of Family Circle and chose to serve it for dinner Thursday evening. Everyone thought the dish was tasty. Cooler evenings sharpen the appetite.

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Ingredients:

1 cup dry polenta

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3 1/2 cups water

Directions:

Magazine Directions: Heat oven to 350. Place polenta in an 8 x 8 x 2-inch baking dish and stir in 3 1/2 cups water and salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until most of the moisture is absorbed. Stir in Parmesan cheese.

My Directions: Place water and polenta with salt and pepper in a 3 quart pan. Cook on top of stove over a low flame stirring often for 30 to 40 minutes or until the liquid has evaporated.

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Sauce:

Ingredients:

1 cup dried porcini mushrooms

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 shallot, finely chopped

10 ounces mushrooms

3 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth

1 can (14.5ounces)diced tomatoes

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Directions:

Since the dried porcini mushrooms were not available to me, I used one pound of the white mushrooms. If you use the dried porcini place them in a bowl and cover with 1 cup of boiling liquid. Soak for 15 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and reserve the liquid. Chop the porcini mushrooms and set aside.

Heat oil in a large non stick skillet over medium heat. Cook shallot 3 minutes. Add white mushrooms to pan; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook 7 minutes. Stir in flour and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.Whisk chicken broth, chopped porcini, diced tomatoes into skillet. Simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes. Spoon mushroom sauce over polenta. Top with shaved Parmesan cheese.

My Directions: I added about 2 tablespoons olive oil to the skillet and sauteed the one pound of mushrooms. I added enough chicken broth to compensate for the liquid that the recipe called for from soaking the porcini mushrooms. The rest of the directions remained the same.