TIPS! The combination of pork and fruit is super!
Just remember to add fruit at 3/4 of the cooking time, to avoid to cook it to much
Italian Pork Loin with Apples
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Loading...This is the super traditional Recipe for Italian Pork Loin that is an inexpensive cut widely used in traditional northern Italian cuisine. It is low in fat and, although it is certainly less caloric than sausages, but rather bland and stringy. Maybe this is the reason why it is often combined with fruit, mostly apples, prunes and, in September, grapes The Italian Pork Loin with apples is a really simple, fast and cheap way to bring a tasty dish to the table that seems much more complicated and expensive than it actually is For the spices, follow your taste in the choice and quantity but absolutely use the fennel seeds and the juniper berries which are perfect with pork. Instead, avoid the chili which I have replaced here with sweet paprika for a pungent note
Ingredients
- Pork Loin - 700gr
- Apples - 5 / about 1kg
- Carrots - 2
- Potatoes - 4 / about 400gr
- Onion - 1
- Honey Dijon Mustard - 2 teaspoons
- Dried Oregano - 1 teaspoon
- Sweet Paprika - 1 teaspoon
- Fennel seeds- 1 teaspoon
- Cumin seeds- 1 teaspoon
- Juniper berries - 1 teaspoon
- Cloves - 4
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- White Vine - 1/2 glass
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180° / 365F
Wash, peel and cut potatoes and carrots into cubes, divide the onion into 4 wedges that you will skewer with the cloves
Mix the spices
Roll up the piece of pork with kitchen thread to keep it in shape
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan and, when it is hot, add the pork so to browns very well.
Turn it on all sides to seal
Collect the vegetables in an ovenproof dish and season with 2 more spoons of oil, salt and pepper
Add the pork and spread the surface with Dijon mustard. Complete by dusting meat and vegetables with the spice mix
Put in the oven and cook for the first 20 minutes
Deglaze with white wine and cook for another 15 minutes
In the meantime, peel and roughly cut the apples
When the vegetables are soft and the meat almost cooked, add the apples and cook for the last 10 minutes
Leave the meat to rest in the oven until it is warm
Serve the pork with the vegetables and a sauce obtained by blending all the onions (to which you will have removed the cloves) with the cooking sauce, where most of the apples will have fallen apart. in order to obtain the creamy sauce that will complete the dishAdd the pork and spread the surface with the dijon mustard. Complete by dusting meat and vegetables with the spice mix
Notes
This Recipe is a classic, especially in the cuisine of north Italy, where is really common to match the mild flavor of pork with the sweet and acid taste of fruit. Usually, I use "rennet" apples because they have a bitter taste that is good in savory preparations and a floury consistency that holds up cooking. Unfortunately they are not very common outside Italy, replace them safely with Fuji which have a perfect balance between sweetness and acidity. For more infos about our apples: https://www.tasteatlas.com/most-popular-apples-in-italy
TIPS! I prefer to cook pieces of meat like this in a terracotta or cast iron pot with a lid to keep the temperature high and constant without vapor dispersion
The cooking point is fundamental: if the pork is undercooked it will be hard, if overcooked it will be stringy. I use a thermometer with which I check the temperature in the center every 20 minutes
The moment I prefer: to spread with Dijon Mustard and to dust with spice mix the surface of the meat
I use a terracotta pan with a lid that cook perfectly the meat also taking advantage of the steam
Alternatively you can use aluminum foil to seal the pan
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