Tourists who call us in their holiday homes for cooking classes and private dinners in Tuscany are certainly looking for an authentic experience in the kitchen.
Mine is a traveling company I go directly to holiday homes for cooking classes and private dinners throughout the Tuscany. Actually, since last year I also have a brick-and-mortar place: Dolce Vita in Tuscany where I can finally host people. There, is my personal kitchen and therefore here too they can certainly live an authentic experience in the kitchen.
As regards our way of behaving we prepare everything from scratch, from appetizers to desserts, on the spot. This means that our dishes are mostly simple dishes that do not require big manipulations and that have deep roots in tradition and also in poor cooking.
I’d like to accompany my cooking lessons in Tuscany with some historic references. By my side, there’s always a search about the origins of a dish. Whether it is a dish from the cooking classes or from the private chef service, each recipe behind our dishes is almost always the original one. I believe that this is the reason why our customers and students live an authentic experience in the kitchen.
Not only Speck
Today’s dish, this speck-wrapped pork, is not a complicated dish at all. Let me say that you can also use Bacon, just be careful it’s not a dry one, but enough fresh that you can wrap it around the meat.
As I said before our dishes must be simple. In fact, an entire menu must be prepared within 3 hours, that is, from when we arrive at the holiday home until when we can serve at the table.
So this pork tenderloin wrapped in speck is a nice opportunity for you to be able to bring at the table something very refined. Simple at the same time. Furthermore, it tastes amazing! What’s better than making a good impression without overworking!
The sauce of this dish is simply delicious. It is something you will not forget because the combination of this “biscuit”, “toasted” flavor of the corn with the cream makes it release something exceptional. In addition, this double cooking of the pork first in the oven and then in the pan certainly guarantees a tenderness and preserves the juices inside which can hardly be reached with another way of cooking.
Suggestions to have a perfect dish:
- The pork fillet has to be slightly pink at the heart. No dark, pink, No white. Since you can’t see the color until you slice it, good to know that usually, for 1 pound of pork is perfect the cooking time of 25 minutes (preheated oven).
- dry the apple slices at least one day before cooking the pork. So you’re sure to have nice apples to decorate your plate. You can be sure that this final touch is really important.
- taste the salt in your corn and heavy cream sauce, it has to be slightly salty, not too sweet at all.
- the use of a non-stick pan is very recommended to brown the speck (or bacon). Don’t use a cast iron or a steel pan, your meat will be stuck to the bottom.
speck-wrapped pork and crispy apple
Ingredients
- 1 pork fillet; 1 pound (450gr)
- 5 1/2 oz (150 gr) fresh speck (or fresh bacon) slices
- 4 tbsp honey
- 4 tbsp mustard (mine is from Dijon)
- 1 cup (250 gr) heavy cream
- 1 can kernel corn
- 2 green apples (granny smith)
Instructions
- Remove the core from top 1 inch (2,5cm) and bottom 1 inch (2,5 cm) of each apple. Cut apples crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick (3-4 mm) slices. Arrange slices in a single layer on prepared baking sheets. Take the most beautiful slices (that’s why I put 2 apples on the list) and put them to dry in the oven on parchment paper, at a temperature of 248 ° F (120 ° C) for about 1 hour.
- Mix the mustard with 1 tablespoon of honey. With a kitchen brush, brush the fillets with this mixture.
- Place a rectangle of parchment paper on a surface.
- Spread the bacon slices well on this sheet of parchment paper. They must be stretched out to form a rectangle. They must be placed slightly overlapping each other so that there are no spaces between the slices. In this way, when we go to roll up the fillet, the whole surface of the pig will be covered.
- Now the most important part, to do carefully:
- place each fillet at the beginning of the rectangle of speck and begin to slowly roll the speck around the fillet, making it adhere very well. Press firmly so that the speck adheres well to the fillet, using the parchment paper. Once the fillet is wrapped with speck, close the final edges of the toffee paper.
- Let it rest wrapped in parchment paper for about 15 minutes.
- During these 15 minutes turn on the oven at 375 ° F (180 ° C) and prepare the sauce.
- You can prepare the sauce also the day before.
- For the sauce: toast the corn in a pan (medium-low heat) with a little salt and 3 a little of the can liquid.
- As soon as it releases the “toasted” smell, pour the cream and mix. cook for about 3 minutes.
- Pour everything in a blender to obtain a cream as smooth as possible. I personally pour everything in a long glass and blend with the immersion blender.
- After the time, put the fillet in the oven for about 25 minutes.
- Remove the parchment paper from the fillet. Brush the speck with the remaining honey.
- Then put a non-stick pan on medium-high heat. Brown the fillet on all sides, being careful not to detach the speck from the pork
- Remove from the pan
- Arrange the cream of corn on a flat plate, tapping it from below so that it spreads evenly.
- Cut the fillet into 2 or 3 cm thick slices and place them on top of the corn cream. Decorate with the dried apple.
Leave a Reply