Polenta with Mushroom Ragù

This recipe I got from the River Cottage Veg everyday cookbook, which has to be one of my favourite veggie cookbooks, everything looks gorgeous and none of the recipes are fussy or complicated. I'd been eying up this recipe for ages but never got around to making it. I've had a packet of gorgeous Italian polenta which my dad brought back from one of his trips and it'd been crying out to be used for too long. Polenta is perfect for this time of year, it's warming, comforting and it's sunny yellow colour brings some brightness on a chilly evening. 

You start off by heating up milk with garlic, onion, pepper corns, bay leaf and thyme. You then turn off the heat and while the milk is infusing, you start preparing the ragù with (even more) garlic, herbs and a mix of fresh and dried mushrooms. Along with the ragù I decided to roast in the oven a large field mushroom for extra depth of flavour and texture. Once your mushrooms are ready you heat back up the milk and in a steady stream pour in the polenta into the liquid and keep on stirring until the polenta is cooked and soft. The polenta I used was 10 min polenta, not instant (as the recipe called for) so I ended up needing more liquid (water from a recently boiled kettle) to get the polenta to the right consistency.



We both loved this recipe and thankfully we had a load of polenta left over which we left to cool into a solid block perfect for making polenta chips or griddled slices.