Italian Food Recipes

Polenta Taragna is an Italian traditional recipe of Valtellina in Lombardy, its name derives from “tarel” that is the name of the long stick traditionally used to stir the polenta in a pot of copper. Polenta Taragna is a mixture of maize yellow flour and buckwheat flour that gives it the typical dark color; it takes about 40 minutes to cook in order to obtain a polenta with firm consistency but if you want obtain a consistency more soft you can cook it for less time or you can add some more water. Polenta Taragna is traditionally prepared with the addition of Italian cheese in particular cheese of Valtellina like Bitto or Casera and butter and in this way you obtain the so called "Polenta Concia" that means polenta with different types of Italian cheese. This type of polenta is ideal if it is accompanied with typical salumi of Valtellina like Bresaola and raw ham know as “Fiochetto Stagionato” or if it is accompanied with mushrooms.

INGREDIENTS (for 8 – 10 people):
1 Kg of Flour for Polenta Taragna
3,5 L of Water
Salt
300 g of Bitto or Casera (Italian cheese)
150 g of Butter

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 40 minutes

WINE: Cabernet (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Place water and salt in a caldron of copper, when it begins to boil sprinkle the flour for polenta taragna into the water and begin to stir with a wood-spoon.


Continue to stir for about 40 minutes until polenta become thick. Cut the butter and the cheese in cubes, in the picture below I show you Bitto cheese,



when the polenta is ready add the pieces of butter and cheese and mix all together in order to melt them.


Serve hot accompanied with traditional of salumi of Valtellina such as bresaola (dried salt beef typical of the Valtellina area in Lombardy) or raw ham know as “fiocchetto stagionato”.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!