Polenta Taragna — Buckwheat and Cornmeal Polenta of the Valtellina

Ingredients

• 1 litre water, salted
• 210 g coarse polenta bramata (yellow cornmeal), coarsely ground
• 140 g buckwheat flour (grano saraceno)
• 80 g unsalted butter, cubed, cold
• 200 g Valtellina Casera DOP or Bitto DOP, cubed; alternatively Fontina d'Aosta

Method

1. 1
   Bring 1 litre of well-salted water to a full boil in a heavy, deep pot. Combine the polenta bramata and buckwheat flour in a bowl at a 60:40 ratio and mix thoroughly. Whisk the blended flours into the boiling water in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly to prevent lumps.
2. 2
   Reduce the heat to medium-low. Switch to a long wooden spoon — traditionally the taragna paddle, with its distinctive sloped end — and stir continuously for 45 to 50 minutes. Do not cease stirring; the buckwheat and corn must gelatinise fully. This is where the dish lives or dies: under-cooking produces an unresolved, grainy mass; the full time transforms the mixture into a single, cohesive body. The polenta is ready when it pulls cleanly away from the sides of the pot in a single mass.
3. 3
   Remove the pot from the heat entirely. Add the cubed butter and the cubed Casera DOP or Bitto DOP. Stir vigorously until the butter is absorbed and the cheese is fully melted through. Do not return the pot to the heat — cheese added during cooking seizes. The finished polenta is glossy, sticky, and deeply savoury.
4. 4
   Serve immediately, turning the polenta directly from the pot onto wooden boards. Polenta taragna stiffens quickly; it is a dish of the moment.