Name of Recipe: Soft polenta
Number of People: 3-4 as a side
Ingredients:
1.5 cups milk (whatever milk you usually use)
1 cup water
1 small fresh bay leaf
1/2 cup fine polenta
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
100g mascarpone
50g grated parmigiano reggiano
Preparation:
Put the butterfly in the thermomix. Whole recipe is cooked with the measuring cup off.
Put the milk, water and bay leaf in the thermomix and set to reverse speed 1 at 100c for 8 minutes. Keep an eye on it, you want to stop it when the temperature reaches 100c, this took about 8 minutes for me. Cook for longer if you need to.
Let the milk/water/bay leaf mixture steep for 20 minutes. When the 20 minutes is up take out the bay leaf. I did this by straining the liquid through a sieve into a bowl. Because you are cooking on reverse the bay leaf should stay whole.
Bring the milk and water back to 100c. This took about 3 minutes for me at 100c reverse speed 1. However, set the timer to 5 minutes so that you have time to pour in the polenta during this step. Once the milk is at 100c slowly pour in the polenta and avoid hitting the top of the butterfly if you can. Add the salt as well.
Once all the polenta is in the thermomix cook for 25 minutes, reverse speed 1 at 90c. Check it after 20 minutes to see if it is cooked to your liking.
While the polenta is cooking put the mascarpone and grated parmigiano reggiano in a large bowl.
Once the polenta is cooked immediately tip it into the bowl with the mascarpone and cheese, mix together well and then serve.
Service with:
I had this alongside pot-roasted rabbit with mustard and prunes. It would be great with osso bucco or anything you might usually serve with pasta or mashed potatoes.
The original recipe has it with pan fried mushrooms.