Valtellina and adjacent Trentino valleys — buckwheat has been cultivated in the Alpine valleys since the 15th century as a cold-tolerant grain suited to the short alpine growing season. Polenta taragna is the primary use of buckwheat in the Italian Alpine cooking tradition.
Polenta taragna (from 'tarar', the Lombard-Trentino dialect for 'to stir') is the polenta of the Valtellina, Val Camonica, and the adjacent Trentino valleys — made with a mixture of coarsely ground cornmeal and buckwheat flour (grano saraceno, Sarrazin in French), producing a polenta that is darker, more toothsome, and more intensely flavoured than standard yellow polenta. The buckwheat's characteristic nutty-bitter note is the defining flavour. It is cooked with a generous addition of Valtellina Casera DOP or Scimudin cheese and butter stirred in at the end. The result is a polenta that is simultaneously grain and cheese — sticky, rich, and deeply savoury.
Polenta taragna served from the pot onto a board is dark-grey from the buckwheat, glossy from the cheese and butter, slightly granular in texture compared to standard polenta. The flavour is rich and complex — the buckwheat's nutty bitterness plays against the butter's sweetness and the Casera's mountain-cheese character. It is a polenta that demands to be eaten with Valtellina Sforzato wine alongside.
Combine coarse polenta bramata (yellow corn) and buckwheat flour in a 60:40 or 70:30 ratio. Bring 1 litre salted water to a boil; whisk in the blended flours. Stir continuously with a long wooden spoon (the taragna paddle, which has a distinctive sloped end) over medium-low heat for 45-50 minutes. The polenta is ready when it pulls away from the sides of the pot in a single mass. Off heat, stir in abundant butter and cubed Casera DOP or Bitto DOP (alternatively, Fontina d'Aosta). Stir until cheese is melted through and the polenta is glossy. Serve from the pot directly onto wooden boards.
Bitto DOP (aged alpine cheese from the Valtellina, made from cow and goat milk) is the traditional cheese for polenta taragna; it is available from specialist Italian cheese suppliers. Casera DOP is more common and more accessible. The polenta should be prepared just before serving — it stiffens quickly. Leftover taragna sliced and pan-fried in butter the next day becomes something else entirely: crispy exterior, yielding buckwheat-cheese interior.
Wrong flour ratio — too much buckwheat produces an excessively bitter polenta; too little produces a standard polenta with a vague buckwheat note. Adding cheese too early — the cheese should be added off heat after the polenta is cooked; adding during cooking can cause the cheese to seize. Under-cooking — polenta taragna requires the full 45-50 minutes for the buckwheat and corn to fully gelatinise.
Slow Food Editore, Trentino-Alto Adige in Cucina; Giorgio Locatelli, Made in Italy