Proud Italian Cook

Pork Tenderloin with Figs, Onions and Olives

August 27, 2018 by Marie 10 Comments

Have you ever paired pork tenderloin with figs? If not, you’re in for a real treat. As you know pork goes very well with fruit, think apples and pork, but when paired with sweet and luscious figs the flavor combination is beyond words!

The pork tenderloin gets marinated for a while, then gets roasted with sweet red onions, green and black olives and plumped out poached fresh figs.

For years, five to be exact, we tried growing our own figs, we have the most beautiful, healthy looking fig tree with enormous leaves, but not one fig has ever been produced, we have a dud, and we might just pull it out this year and attempt to buy another variety and start over, but it’s hard when the leaves look this good.

So in the meantime when I see a display of figs like this I jump for joy and grab a couple of boxes.

The figs were unblemished, in premo condition, sweet and ripe, what more could a girl ask for!

These little jewels got placed into a poaching liquid to cook down and concentrate their flavor a bit, and to create the most delicious, syrupy sauce which will act as a beautiful glaze for the pork tenderloin.

What you have here is a sweet and savory combination that balances quite nicely with the briny olives and herbs.

Make this please, it’s pure decadence!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Pork Tenderloin with Figs, Onions and Olives

Make this when fresh figs are nice and ripe for a delicious combination of sweet and savory

Author: Marie

Ingredients

1 pork tenderloin about 1½ lbs. ( silver skin removed)
1 dozen fresh, ripe figs, cut lengthwise
green and black olives some cracked and pitted, a good handful
1 large red onion, quartered leaving the stem and root attached
MARINADE INGREDIENTSFOR PORK
2 tablespoons, fig preserves
2 tablespoons grainy mustard
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon each of thyme and rosemary leaves
salt and pepper
POACHING LIQUID FOR FIGS
¼ cup of red wine and ½ cup of water or all water if you prefer
¼ cup or so of sweetner, honey, brown sugar or white sugar
¼ cup or so of fig preserves or fig butter

Instructions

First, you want to poach your figs so they can cool down and have the syrup thicken..
In a saucepan, on low heat, add everything in but the figs just until the sugar dissolves, then put your figs in and poach them on low until they absorb the flavors and plump up and you see the juice oozing out, depending on how ripe your figs are you may need to add a little more liquid while it's poaching. When finished let it cool down and thcken up.
Marinate the pork tenderloin by making a paste of the chopped herbs, garlic, mustard, fig preserves, salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
Rub marinate all over the pork tenderloin and let it sit for at least a half hour.
Sear the pork tenderloin on all sides, getting a nice golden brown.
Place the seared tenderloin into a baking dish along with your quartered and fanned out red onion and the olives.
Add the plumped up and thickend figs all around the baking dish and spoon some of the thick syrup on the top and sides of the seared tenderloin, this will act as a glaze.
Roast at 400F for 20 minutes or until internal meat thermometer reaches 145
Let it rest 5 minutes before slicing.
Make sure each serving has a little bit of everything.

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10 Comments Filed Under: Fruit, Meats Tagged: figs, fresh figs, poached figs, pork tenderloin

Summer Stacked Vegetable Caprese

August 17, 2018 by Marie 2 Comments

Healthy summer vegetables roasted then layered and stacked together along with all the makings for a caprese salad, that best describes this Summer Stacked Vegetable Caprese. The flavors of summer all stacked into one lovely bundle.

This can be served as an appetizer, a light lunch or even a side dish, it’s colorful and it tastes amazing, like a caprese on steroids!

I was lucky enough to find these beautiful Aloha peppers when I made my veggie/caprese stacks but you can certainly use a mix of yellow and red bell peppers to get the same color effect.

I roasted all my vegetables but you can certainly grill them as well. I used eggplant that had the skin peeled off in a zebra effect, some left on and some peeled off.

The peppers were cut around 3/4 of an inch thick to keep them sturdy enough to hold the other veggies. You’ll also want to reserve and cook the tops for use in the presentation, slices of zucchini were also roasted.

All vegetables were roasted at 400F. on a baking sheet drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper, cooked until lightly golden until tender but not overcooked.

Slice up some ripe summer tomatoes and have your mozzarella sliced and ready to go.

Fresh basil is a must, along with basil pesto for added yummy flavor.

Then it’s all about the stacking, so find a pretty plate and first add the pepper ring, inside the ring stick a eggplant slice and swipe a little pesto on it.

Next, add your sliced mozzarella with a basil leaf on top.

Top the mozzarella with a ripe tomato slice swiped with pesto and a drizzle of olive oil.

Repeat with another pepper ring and this time add the zucchini and swipe the top with pesto.

Then another mozzarella slice with a fresh basil leaf.

Repeat with another tomato slice swiped with pesto and a drizzle of olive oil.

Place the pepper top that you reserved to cap it off, place a skewer right down the center to keep it nice and secure then add some pesto on the top.

You can decorate the plate with swirls of pesto and balsamic glaze, serve this with a knife and fork and enjoy!

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2 Comments Filed Under: Appetizers, Salads, Side Dishes, Summer Tagged: aloha peppers, caprese, colored peppers, roasted veggies, stacked veggies

Spaghetti with Blistered Tomatoes, Burrata and Corn

August 10, 2018 by Marie 8 Comments

This recipe is summer freshness at it’s best, and the great thing about it is that the preparation is nice and simple but yields the most amazing results!

What you’re looking at are strands of spaghetti intertwined with juicy, cherry tomatoes that have burst and blistered in the oven to create the most luxurious tomato and garlic flavored sauce with the special addition of sweet, fresh corn kernels and burrata cheese.

Fresh summer flavors are what makes this dish such a hit, there’s no special skills you need in making it because the ingredients speak for themselves.

Do a search and you’ll see roasted tomatoes and pasta all over the place, but I make this every summer and this is my way of doing it and what works for me. So rather than a recipe at the bottom of the post I’ll just walk you through the steps now.

I use a quarter sheet pan that has a rim on it. Heat the oven to 425F and line the pan with foil. Lining it with foil helps to gather and hold on to those precious, silky juices, plus it helps prevents the juices from burning off.

I really don’t measure the amount of tomatoes I use, I just load the pan from rim to rim, single layer with cherry or grape tomatoes, you could use all red or colored.

I leave the tomatoes whole so they can burst on their own when ready.

Add in four cloves of crushed garlic, torn basil, salt, pepper and dowse it generously all over with extra virgin olive oil.

When you start to see the tomatoes split pull the pan out of the oven and with the tip of a small paring knife pierce each tomato to let the hot juices release, word of caution, lean back because sometimes the juice will squirt out at you, then before it goes back into the oven add the fresh kernels of two ears of sweet corn, continue cooking until you see the tomatoes wrinkle and all the juices mingling together with the olive oil, garlic and corn.

It should look like this. Now all you have to do is cook up your spaghetti or pasta of your choice and then toss everything together, make sure you get every bit of that juice incorporated, use a rubber spatula to make sure you scrape off all that glorious juice. For this amount of saucey goodness I used twelve ounces of pasta.

When all the silky sauce is mixed in break open your burrata cheese, (as much as you want) and spread it on top, it will start to melt slightly, then adorn it with more basil, grated Parmigiano Reggiano and a quick drizzle of olive oil to finish it off.