Finally.
I'm back.
It's been a long few months (few is quite the understatement). So just where have I been you ask? Well I have been here, in Holyoke, grinding it out at work mostly, trying to get a spare minute to be able continue this project.
There was the sweet Bermudian honeymoon in May, the warm as balls summer, and finding out that I am going to be a father for the first time! (Go me!!) But my absence was mostly due to having a lot on my work plate that needed attention.
Sorry.
I wasn't abducted by aliens, I didn't sell all of my possessions to follow Metallica on tour, nor did I lose interest in Molto Mario in case you were wondering.
Distractions aside, I hereby promise to be more attentive to all of you here in blog land. Really, I do.
And before I start I want to thank you all for hanging in there with me and for all of the nice comments that you have sent my way. Keep them coming, I love hearing from you.
I have been looking forward to making this recipe for quite some time. The picture of it in the cookbook could practically be a centerfold for me. It has all of the components for an excellent foodie meal. A spice rubbed pork tenderloin that Mario recommends cooking to about medium doneness, onions, pancetta, Cinzano....this has to be a home run. Yet the ingredient list is common enough so that the amateur home cook will not have to travel to twenty stores just to make it.
I am so excited to dive back into this so let's begin.
I finally get to use the spice grinder that my wife bought for me as a gift for the first step in making the spice rub for the pork.
I'll be using it to grind dried porcini mushrooms into a fine powder.
OK, I know that I just stated that you're local grocery store will have all of these ingredients in the above paragraph, but I'm sorry folks I could not find dried porcini mushrooms in any grocery store around here. Not even my personal Mecca, Whole Foods Market had them!
Now what I could've done was look to source them out online and have them shipped to my home, but it's been like eight freakin' months and I really wanted to start this blog again, so I opted to go for the dried shiitake mushrooms instead. The mushroom powder gets put a bowl with red pepper flakes and brown sugar and is mixed well.
Next I take the pork tenderloins and carefully remove any of the silver skin from the outside that would prevent these beautiful pieces of meat from being anything but tender.
Once the skin is removed, I then apply the dry rub evenly to the entirety of the tenderloins.
They get wrapped in plastic wrap and are allowed to marinate for 12 to 24 hours. I opted for a full 24 hours to get every ounce of flavor out of it that I could.
Looking at my ingredients list I see that I have to make a vinaigrette before I start the rest of the pork prep. I have my bottle of the Cinzano brand sweet red vermouth handy, so I add some to a small saucepan along with red wine vinegar and fresh rosemary and bring it to a boil.
This basically has to keep reducing down until it's nearly a syrup as such.
Once at this stage it is now ready to emulsify the extra-virgin olive oil into this vinaigrette. After seasoning with salt and pepper it is completed.
I preheat the oven to 375°. I take a small roasting pan and place some scrubbed Jerusalem artichokes into it and pour a copious amount of salt over the top to cover. This step makes me nervous as all hell, but I blindly follow Mario anyway. The artichokes get roasted for about 45 minutes until tender.
While those are in the oven I bring a few quarts of water up to boil and add some salt so that I can blanch the haricot verts. For this recipe they need to be somewhat tender but not quite cooked through, as they will get more heat a little bit later on in the recipe.
This next step is something that probably caused my neighbors to question the state of my mental health. I fired up my grill.... in November.....at night when it is pitch black (which is pretty much anytime after 4:30) to prepare the tenderloins for grilling. I don't know if you can even make out the outline of a grill in this picture it is so dark outside. And no, we are not having some sort of November heat wave up here. I just decided to make this recipe, using a grill, in November, the day before thanksgiving.
The pork is going to take roughly 15 minutes to grill which gives me enough time to make the onion sauté. In a sauté pan, I heat some olive oil over medium heat and add peeled Cipolline onions and pancetta. It's critical here to allow the onions to get some caramelization to add a depth of flavor.
By this time the artichokes should be cool enough to slice. I add them to the sauté pan once I have proper caramelization on the onions along with the haricot verts. The Cinzano vinaigrette is added and gets reduced enough to coat the vegetables.
Now my pork is ready to come off the grill and rest for a few minutes before slicing.
Time for plating. After a final seasoning, I add the haricot verts and Cipolline onion mixture to the plate, and some sliced pork tenderloin, and drizzle a little bit of the pan juice around.
Tasting notes: Overall I was quite underwhelmed. The vermouth mixture, once reduced, had the sweetest aroma that really had me amped up to glaze it over the pork, onion, and pancetta. I think where Mario may have missed the mark was the addition of too much olive oil. For me, it completely muted the flavor. Same for the vinaigrette.
Now I know he's not big on reduction sauces, but this really needed it! It wasn't a total bonk. Everything worked so well together. I'll just be tweaking it a little the next time I pull this one out of the memory bank.
Damn that felt good. It's great to be back.
More is on the way I promise, in fact I've already bought the ingredients! How's that for commitment! Until next time...
