Pork and Apple Pasta

Pork, Apple and Walnut Pasta with Sage-Mustard Cream

This is a really elegant recipe that's sooooo good on a cool Autumn evening (or in the early spring, when the seasonal produce isn't up yet and all that's still good are onions and apples). It's definitely a rustic dish, so make sure to rough chop all the ingredients in order to get some nice textural contrasts in each bite. Full of spicy-sweet-rich flavor, it's a great dish for company and it tastes even better the next day!

Use a compact twisty pasta like Fusili or Bow Ties that will mix well and hold the sauce. I used fun seasonal pasta shapes from World Market in the photo above.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

Pasta Mix
1/2 lb Ground Italian Sausage
1/2 lb Ground Pork
4 Cloves Garlic, diced fine
1/2 Onion, chopped roughly
1 Apple, firm, unpeeled, chopped roughly (Galas work best)
1/4 C Walnuts, chopped roughly
1 Tbl Red Chili flakes (more if you like it spicy)
1/4 C Fresh Sage, chopped roughly (Sub 2 Tbl dried sage)
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a very large pot or skillet, saute the garlic, onion, sausage and pork for 2 minutes over medium heat, or until the onions start to soften. Add the sage and chili flakes and continue to saute until the meat is cooked through and the mixture is well combined. Remove from heat, stir in the apples and walnuts. Salt and Pepper to taste. Cover and set aside.

Sage-Mustard Cream Sauce
1/2 Small Shallot, diced fine
1 tsp Butter
1 C Cream
1/4 C Yellow Mustard (any mustard but dijon, really)
1/4 C Fresh Sage, chopped roughly (Sub 2 Tbl dried sage)
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a small saucepan, saute the shallot, butter and sage over medium heat until the shallot softens and turns transluscent. Turn down to medium-low, add the cream and stir occasionally until the cream warms through. Add the mustard and bring the mixture to a low simmer, stirring occasionally. It should thicken - add more mustard if it doesn't. Turn down to low to keep warm and cover.

Boil and drain the pasta, then add the pasta and sauce to the meat mixture and toss to combine.

Garnish With
Parmesan
Freshly Ground Pepper
Fried Sage Leaves

Dinner for a Rainy Autumn Eve

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Chanterelle Mushrooms, Braised Leeks,

Mashed Potatoes and Pan Gravy

One of the great things about living in the Pacific Northwest is the abundance of wild foodstuffs you can forage for yourself. I've heard that the Coastal Salish Native Americans had the most sophisticated art forms in North America, due largely to the fact that food is so easy to find here that the tribes had lots of free time to pursue art, storytelling and other non-subsistence activities. Having grown up in the woods and seas of the Coastal NW, I love the abundance of berries, game, edible roots and fungus.

I went mushroom hunting yesterday with my mother, whose depression-era sensibilities make her a natural for finding free food. Chanterelle mushrooms grow wild here but with rapidly expanding housing developments, choice patches are getting few and far between. Mushroom lovers guard their stashes vehemently and I think she had me swear myself to secrecy at least 5 times during the drive to the patch she'd found on a thickly wooded and steep hillside.

After an hour of struggling through spongy loam and slippery rotten logs, we had a respectable haul of about 3 lbs of fresh Chanterelles. We divvied up the stash and I brought them home. It was a grey and drizzly day so a warm autumn meal sounded perfect. What better to go with freshly picked wild forest mushrooms than pork and seasonal vegetable like leeks? I included a standard mashed potato recipe using Yukon Gold potatoes and some fresh chives. It was a fit meal for a cold day.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin

There are no photos of the tenderloin cooking because pork tenderloin looks like... well... horse dick. It just didn't translate.

1 Pork Tenderloin
Juice of 1 Lemon
2 Tbsp Flour
2 tsp Whole Coriander Seed
1 tsp Caraway
2 Tbl Thyme
Salt & Pepper
2 Tbl Olive Oil

Marinate the pork in lemon juice for 1/2 hour. Heat oven to 350 degrees and remove the tenderloin from the marinade.

Crush the spices together in a mortar to help release the flavors.

Mix the flour, spices, salt and pepper in a large plastic bag. Toss the tenderloin in the bag and shake to coat with the spiced flour mixture. Heat the olive oil in the bottom of a dutch oven or other oven-proof pot. Brown the tenderloin on all sides and place the whole pot into the oven to finish, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and loosely tent with foil for 10 minutes to rest, then slice into medallions.

If making gravy and/or mushrooms, keep the pan and drippings hot.