Dydd Santes Dwynwen Hapus!
It was Saint Dwynwen’s Day (the Welsh equivalent of Valentine’s Day) yesterday so I rustled up a romantic supper! I had some sage left from Sunday’s roast pork dish that I wanted to use up, and it goes well with polenta, with a bit of parmesan mixed in for added creaminess.
The other herbs are growing in our garden – you could use just thyme or rosemary, or oregano, if you prefer. We’re doing Dry January this year, so this was served with an alcohol-free Muscat from Asda – not quite Champagne, but it was as close as we could get!
Ingredients (serves 2)
150g dried polenta (I used Polenta Valsugana)
600ml boiling water
16 sage leaves, 10 chopped finely and 6 reserved for serving
8 chestnut mushrooms
90g smoked bacon lardons
A few sprigs of thyme and rosemary
50g butter
Squeeze of lemon juice
30g parmesan, grated
Method
1. Place the boiling water in a pan over a high heat with a teaspoon of salt.
2. Fry the bacon lardons until crispy; reserve on some kitchen paper and set aside. Wipe the pan with kitchen paper, if you like.
3. Peel and de-stem the mushrooms. Fill the cavity of each mushroom with a small knob of butter (see the picture below for illustration). Place them in the pan you used for the bacon over a low heat.
4. Pour the polenta into your pan of boiling water, reduce the heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon for 7 minutes.
5. While you are stirring your polenta, gently move your mushrooms around the pan to make sure they don’t stick, being careful not to knock the butter from their cavities.
6. When the butter in the mushroom cavities has fully melted, flip them quickly and add the thyme, rosemary, lemon juice, and whole sage leaves to the pan.
7. Add any remaining butter to the polenta, together with the chopped sage leaves and almost all of the parmesan (reserving a little to sprinkle over the top just before serving).
8. Divide the polenta between two plates, topped with the bacon, mushrooms, and crispy sage leaves from the pan. Spoon a little bit of the melted butter from the mushroom pan onto the polenta, if you like, before sprinkling your remaining parmesan over the top.
Yvo Cooks 