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Blog_Elevating the ultimate comfort food: polenta with quail eggs and truffle

Polenta with Quail Eggs and Truffle – Elevating the Ultimate Comfort Food

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When the leaves start to darken and the days get shorter, in Piemonte it's time for polenta – the ultimate cold-weather comfort food. For long considered the staple food of farmers in Northern Italy, these days the simple, tasty cornmeal porridge is experiencing a well-deserved renaissance on the tables of many Italian homes and Italian restaurants abroad.

Traditionally, polenta is served with meat stews or cheese, Bolognese sauce (have a look at our ragù recipe here!) or earthy mushrooms and sausages. Today, we present a simple but elevated way to serve this rustic carbohydrate that will win over your guests.

Traditional polenta is cooked creamy and rich with milk and butter, laced with flavorful cheese, and topped with delicately fried quail eggs. In the Ruffoni home, we like to celebrate the arrival of Fall with one of our most famous and widely exported regional ingredients: truffles. You can serve this mouthwatering appetizer in our copper butter casseroles as part of a multi-course meal, or make it the main act by simply swapping the tiny quail eggs with organic chicken eggs and bringing it to the table in a large serving frying pan for your family and friends to enjoy!

Polenta with quail eggs and truffle

Famiglia Ruffoni

Cuisine

Italian

Category

Vegetarian friendly, Appetizers

Polenta with quail eggs and truffle

Ingredients

  • 1 cup polenta (corn grits)

  • 1 cup whole milk

  • approx 2 cups water approx

  • 1 cup cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano, toma, taleggio..)

  • 6 tbsp butter, divided

  • 4 quail eggs

  • 1 small truffle

  • salt

Instructions

  1. In a Saucepan, bring milk and water to boil, then add salt and polenta, whisking well to prevent lumps.

  2. Cook following the instructions on the package: instant polenta will only take a few minutes, but traditional coarse ground polenta with buckwheat will cook for approx 40 mins. Stir regularly, and add a bit of hot water as needed.

  3. Once cooked, remove from heat, add 4 tbps of butter and finish with the cheese – finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano is always a great choice and will add a pleasant savoriness, or experiment with Mountain Toma or Taleggio for more funky notes and cheese pull.

  4. In a Frying Pan, melt the remaining butter until foamy then gently fry the quail eggs.

  5. Serve individual portions of polenta in the ceramic insert of the butter casserole and delicately place the fried egg on top.

  6. Shave some fresh truffle with a Truffle Shaver directly at the table, and enjoy!

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Famiglia Ruffoni

Meet the author

Famiglia Ruffoni

In the Ruffoni family, cooking is the language of love.
Many of our most cherished memories are linked to cooking and eating together and, even when physically apart, we always discuss old family recipes, share newly discovered ingredients and techniques, and show off our culinary creations through texts and video calls.

In this blog we share the simple, delicious recipes of the Italian heritage – as they have been handed down through generations of Ruffoni – along with our thoughts (and rants!) on all things copper.