Wild Mushroom Bruschetta on Polenta Diamonds, variation on a recipe from Bonnie Stern’s Heartsmart Cooking

I realized in the last post I gave pictures, but did not actually give the cooking process for the wild mushroom bruschetta with goat cheese (and the variation with lactose-free feta).

olive oil
shallots
garlic
portobello (or other wild) mushrooms
thyme
pepper
salt
parsley
unripened goat cheese yogurt cheese or light ricotta (yogurt cheese is yogurt that has been strained through a cheesecloth to thicken…or just use a thick plain yogurt)
more garlic

This is a beautiful recipe from Bonnie Stern’s HeartSmart: The Best of HeartSmart Cooking. In a cookbook with five ‘bruschetta’ recipes, this is a nice variation on the traditional tomato recipe. The recipe does say it’s okay to use other cheeses and the feta worked well, being not too salty. Feta does have less lactose than most cow’s milk cheeses as it’s mostly goat’s or sheep’s milk, but the lactose-free version here is more likely a ‘miracle’, or disgrace, of modern science.

Heat oil and sauté shallots and garlic for a few minutes (never heat olive oil over medium heat or it will burn. Canola oils and vegetable oils can go higher but don’t contain the flavour or those much-lauded omega 3’s). Add mushroom, thyme and a little pepper. I ran out of thyme…hilarious, I know. So I searched and decided on tarragon, a nice aromatic with the mushrooms and supposedly good for digestion. This is a nice effect when I use cheese of any sort as trusting my digestive system is often a bit of blind faith. Cook until liquid evaporates and stir in salt and parsley.

Then in a food processor add cheese of choice, a little more pepper, the second batch of garlic, and yogurt cheese or ricotta. This doesn’t blend well. A food processor would be a better plan, especially when you’re trying to get the spread out after it finally does blend. You can add more yogurt cheese to make it more spreadable, but it dilutes the flavour.

Then all you do is put a touch of the cheese mixture on the polenta diamonds and top with the mushroom bruschetta and a little sprinkle of parsley, or more tarragon.