Cinghiale con Polenta - Wild Boar with polenta
The wild boar experience, I have to warn you, is not for everyone. Wild boar eaters are people who are not afraid of trying a new experience, people who want to have an experience that will bring them back to a reality of old hunters who went into the mountains of Tuscany to kill an animal and bring home the meat for a family that really needed it.
The hunting was dangerous because the boar will hide, run and attack you with all the strength that a 280-300 Lbs animal can have, so you really need to know what you are doing and be ready for him. The boar can smell you from very far away and that smell, he knows, can only mean trouble and death for him. Usually man’s best friend, your dog, who has been trained for this type of hunt can give a hand. He will try to corner the boar for you so you have a better and safer possibility to kill him. Zita’s husband, my grandfather Stefano never killed such an animal, but my great-uncle Carlo and his dog Fumo (smoke) knew what to do. He always managed to kill 2 or 3 animals every winter and always gave some meat to Zita.
The meat of the boar is a dark red meat, not too fat and with a strong gamy taste. Zita always used a lot of red wine to marinate and cook the meat. She always added a lot of garlic and rosemary to confuse the strong taste. This is the recipe, are you ready?
- For 4-6 people 1 Lbs of mouthful size chunks
- -5 cloves 4 of fresh garlic (chopped)
- ½ cup chopped rosemary
- ¼ cup chopped sage
- 1 medium size chopped red onion
- 1 small chopped carrot
- 5 – 6 bay leaves (hole)
- 1 big slice of lemon skin (hole)
- ¾ cup of extravergine olive oil
- salt and black pepper as needed
- 3 cups red wine
- 1 cup peeled tomatoes
- 2 spoons of tomatoes paste
- 1 or 2 cups of vegetable broth
- 1 cup of Tuscan black or green olives
The night before, cover the meat with the wine, add the bay leaves and lemon peel and place in refrigerator.
You will need at least three hours for the preparation and the cooking.
Place the meat, wine lemon and bay leaves in a stew pot, (I prefer copper or alluminum pots) at a very high flame, let the wine evaporate stirring often. When this is done add all the other ingredients except the tomatoes that you will add when the chopped vegetables and seasonings have become golden.
Simmer for at least 2 hours, adding some vegetable broth when needed, until meat is tender.
You will serve this stew with Polenta, you may find already cooked polenta that you can slice and warm in microwave, or may find a precooked flower that will only take 6-8 minutes to prepare or if you are really brave, you can make the polenta the way Zita made it. She would use the regular corn flower, better if it was from the red corn. She would cook the polenta for over an hour stirring constantly. I think we can cheat on the polenta a little Zita, would understand, but not on the preparation of the wild boar.
Once I served the stew on rice and it was not too bad.
Once you have decided place the stew on top of the polenta or rice and serve steaming hot.
Buon Appetito
Zita always made extra polenta to fry for the next day, but that is another recipe.
P.S. Enjoy this recipe with a corpulent red wine.
