Polenta is great for accompanying robust and saucy dishes of our tradition, but it’s also ideal for making chips and original crostini garnished with a variety of ingredients. Fried polenta crostini with mushrooms and Grana Padano fondue is a rustic and tasty appetizer, perfect to enrich your autumn menus! The fragrant base welcomes a simple but unbeatable mix of flavors, embellished by the velvety touch of cheese cream… a delicious idea to whet the appetite of friends or, why not, to use up leftover polenta!
Ingredients for about 32 crostini
- Instant polenta flour 300g
- Water 600g
- Extra virgin olive oil 15g
- Salt to taste
- Semi-frying oil as needed
Difficulty: Easy
Preparation time: 15 min
Cooking time: 60 min
Servings: 32 pieces
Note: + 1 hour refrigeration time for polenta
Preparation
How to prepare fried polenta crostini with mushrooms and Grana Padano fondue:
First, prepare the polenta: pour the water, oil, and salt in a high-sided pan and bring them to a boil. Then, slowly add the instant polenta flour while vigorously stirring with a wooden spoon to avoid lumps. Cook for about 10 minutes until it becomes fairly dense and compact.
Pour the still hot polenta onto a tray measuring 33×24 cm and spread it with a spatula until it reaches a thickness of 5 mm. To make it smoother on the surface, you can cover the tray with a sheet of parchment paper and level the polenta with a rolling pin. Put the tray in the refrigerator to set for at least one hour.
In the meantime, clean the mushrooms by removing the end of the stem with a small knife, then peel both the stem and the top. Finally, moisten a sheet of kitchen paper and gently rub to eliminate any residue of dirt. You will need about 250g of cleaned mushrooms.
Cut the mushrooms into thin slices, then chop the parsley and chives.
Slightly crush the garlic clove and fry it in a pan with oil for a couple of minutes, then add the mushrooms, parsley, and chives. Season with salt and pepper and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
When it’s well-set, remove the polenta from the refrigerator and cut it into rectangles of 5×6 cm. Pour the semi-frying oil into a pan and heat it to a temperature of 160°C. Fry a few polenta rectangles at a time for about 3 minutes per side, then drain them on a sheet of absorbent paper.
Prepare the Grana Padano DOP fondue by pouring the milk into a small pot and bring it to a light boil. Then, add the grated Grana Padano DOP and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk until it reaches a creamy consistency.
Now, you can assemble the crostini: pour a teaspoon of Grana Padano DOP fondue, garnish with a teaspoon of mushrooms and season with a pinch of pepper. Your fried polenta crostini with mushrooms and Grana Padano fondue are ready to be enjoyed!
Storage
We suggest consuming the fried polenta crostini with mushrooms and Grana Padano fondue on the same day.
Tips
You can replace the champignon mushrooms with other types of mushrooms such as porcini or chanterelles, for example!