I love recipes. I have hundreds of cookbooks. I devour newspapers and magazines for new ideas. I even read through the little recipe booklets that come courtesy of some of our product suppliers, although it is rare to find inspiration in a brochure offering fifty different things to do with provolone.....
So I was pleasantly surprised to find some atrractive looking dishes in "Fontina & Fonduta, the ingredients of pleasure", a slim volume from the "Cooperativa Produttori Latte e Fontina Valle D'Aosta". The "Poached Eggs, Polenta Dumplings and Fonduta" particularly caught my eye, although I didn't expect to find canned fonduta as an ingredient. I've never seen fonduta in a can, and I'm not sure I 'd want to try it if I did.
With fonduta made from scratch and a few tweaks here and there this made a pretty easy yet indulgent dinner.
D'Aosta into small cubes and soaking them in milk a few hours before preparing the fonduta. I used 8oz of cheese and a cup of milk.
Fonduta needs gentle heat, typically using a double boiler but I made do with a large glass bowl above a saucepan of gently simmering water. To increase the indulgence ratio of the dish I melted about a tablespoon of truffle butter before adding two well beaten eggs, the cheese and a little of the milk it had been soaking in. All it then needs is regular gentle stirring until all the ingredients have merged into a thick cream. It is easy to prepare the rest of the dish in between stirs.
I put on a pan of water to boil and then poached a couple of eggs. I then diced some cooked polenta into cubes, and fried them in a little butter with sage leaves. Once the fonduta has come together, pour it onto a plate and add the poached egg and dumplings.
Personally I couldn't resist adding a bit more truffle butter to the fonduta just before serving. The result was rich, luxurious comfort food perfect for a cold January night.
To accompany the dish we drank a Figini Gavi di Gavi, which had enough backbone to stand up to the richness of the dish and whose dry palate provided a good contrast.
