Pork Tenderloin in Porcini Sauce

Last week, I went all out just once.

Honestly, living for weeks on end on Subway, North Fish and sandwiches from Costa makes absolutely no sense. No sense at all. But I simply have no time. Work, work, work. You can see it yourselves: it’s been quiet as a mouse here on Prymitywna…

But last week I did go all out once.

I had the last of some delicious dried porcini. So all I was missing, really, was cream and pork tenderloin. Hmm, when you’re only two ingredients short of such a splendid dish, there’s no point hesitating. Even if those are the… main ingredients 🙂 I just found myself craving pork tenderloin in porcini sauce.

And I pictured it with gnocchi and Brussels sprouts. At the beginning of autumn, I always tend to crave Brussels sprouts. They’re wonderfully wonderful. Simply boiled is fine, although usually with breadcrumbs they’re something else entirely. I came a little unstuck with the gnocchi because, this time, I couldn’t be bothered to make them myself (you’ll find the gnocchi recipe here) and bought a huge packet. And, as you probably know, shop-bought gnocchi have to be eaten within 3 days. Over the next 3 days, I barely ate at home. Oh well.

Actually, I haven’t yet explained what put pork tenderloin in porcini sauce into my head. The day before, P., Konrad (www.mustache.pl) and I had been to Miełżyński for a late lunch. I had a really good risotto with saffron milk caps. P. ordered pork tenderloin, with Brussels sprouts and gnocchi, just like that. Admittedly, a more modest version than mine the following day, without the delicious porcini sauce. But good enough to win me over. I recommend it. P. probably does too.

At a glance:

Preparation time: 40 minutes

Serves: 1 portion

How many calories: ask the porcini (but it probably has some)

Ingredients for outstanding pork tenderloin:

• 1 pork tenderloin
• 10 grams of dried porcini
• 2 tablespoons of 18% cream
• half a glass of dry white wine
• salt
• ground black pepper
• olive oil

How to make pork tenderloin in porcini sauce:

An incredibly simple recipe, because pork tenderloin is incredibly simple to fry. It’s a particularly easy cut of meat to prepare. At least, that’s how it seems to me.

I washed the tenderloin thoroughly, salted and peppered it, pressing the seasonings well into the meat. I heated olive oil in a frying pan and put in the whole tenderloin. I fried it over medium “heat” — on my induction hob, about 5 on a scale of 1–10 — for roughly 4 minutes on each side, pressing it down occasionally. Important: a tenderloin has 4 sides, not two 🙂

Once it was nicely browned on every side, I poured in half a glass of dry white wine. I kept frying briefly until about half the wine had evaporated.

Meanwhile, I boiled some water and poured it over the dried porcini. After about 2 minutes, I drained the mushrooms and dried them on a paper towel. I cut them into uneven strips and added them to the pan beside the pork frying in the wine.

When roughly 1/3 of the wine remained in the pan, I removed the pork to a paper towel and added 2 tablespoons of cream to the pan. I reduced the “heat” — on my induction hob, to about 3–4 on a scale of 1–10 — and mixed it thoroughly with the remaining wine, olive oil and, of course, mushrooms.

I cut the tenderloin into 3 pieces (you can see them in the photo) and, after a minute, stood them upright in the pan. I fried everything over low “heat” for another 3–4 minutes. Once the pork had absorbed the aroma of the mushroom sauce, I took it out of the pan. At this point, the tenderloin is ready, so if you want to serve it on its own, just spoon over the sauce from the pan. But I was making mine with gnocchi, so to give my little Italian dumplings that mushroom aroma too, I put them in the pan and coated them thoroughly in the sauce.

I completed the dish with boiled Brussels sprouts. Delicious. Enjoy!