Pork tenderloin with dried porcini mushrooms

The following tasty recipe: pork tenderloin with dried cèps, porcini mushrooms, is a perfect winter dish.

The recipe is inspired by a Martin Walker book in the Bruno, chief of police, series. In this recipe, the dried porcini mushrooms were simmered in red wine. Most of the recipes recommend first to soak the dried porcini mushrooms in hot water. Well, I don’t think that method gives any real mushroom taste to dried porcini, so I was eager to try Bruno’s method. After all, the traditional Italian methods to prepare fresh porcini involve simmering in red wine.

Bruno’s method worked very well with dried porcini mushrooms; they were tasty and had a nice consistence after being simmered for about half an hour in red wine. But they really absorbed red wine, a lot! In the book, Bruno added a glass of red wine per a package of dried porcini, but this was not enough even to soak all the mushrooms. I kept adding more and more, 3 glasses of red wine plus 200 ml chicken stock were needed to simmer them properly.

2 servings

Pork tenderloin, about 300 g
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small package of dried cèps, Italian porcini mushrooms
450 ml red wine
200 ml chicken stock
Freshly ground black pepper
Parsley to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180⁰ C.

Cook the pork tenderloin in the oven for 45 minutes per 300 g, and 60 minutes per 450- 500 g. Let it rest tented in foil for about 15 minutes before slicing.

Meanwhile prepare the porcini. In a large frying pan warm 1 tbsp rapeseed oil over medium heat. Gently cook the shallot and garlic for about 10 minutes until soft but not browned. Add the dried porcini mushrooms, red wine and chicken stock. Mix well. Reduce the heat to simmering, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add the sliced pork tenderloin and black pepper.

Serve the pork tenderloin and porcini with steamed new potatoes and carrot slices. Decorate with parsley.