roast pork with marsala

arrosto di maiale al marsala

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour, 45 minutes plus soaking

MAKES: 6 servings

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Ingredients

1 cup dried chestnuts
1 (2-pound) boneless pork loin roast
Fine sea salt
2 (1/4-inch-thick) slices flat pancetta or slab bacon, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick strips
4 bay leaves, preferably fresh
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 cups dry Marsala wine
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 cup beef broth
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Rinse chestnuts, then place in a medium bowl; add water to cover by 3 inches. Soak at room temperature, 8 hours or overnight.

Heat oven to 325º with rack in middle.

Season pork all over with 1/4 teaspoon salt. With a paring knife, make about 25 incisions all over pork and fill with pancetta strips. Tie loin at 1-inch intervals with string, tying bay leaves between meat and string.

Place 1/4 cup flour on a baking sheet; roll pork in flour to coat.

Heat oil in a 5- to 7-quart Dutch oven or wide heavy pot with lid over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Brown

pork on all sides, 10 to 15 minutes total. Remove from heat.

In a large saucepan, whisk together remaining 1/4 cup flour and wine over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook, whisking often, until mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Add milk, broth, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Gently simmer, whisking occasionally, until sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 5 to 7 minutes.

Transfer sauce to pan with pork. Drain and add chestnuts. Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil and lid. Roast, basting pork once halfway through, recovering with foil and lid, until thermometer inserted 2 inches into meat registers 150°, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

Remove pork from oven and let rest in pan 15 minutes before serving.

December 2011

keywords:

christmas

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Comments [11] | Add your comment

Exlellent pork dish. Where can one purchase the wonderful brown cooking pot in the picture?

Posted: December 14, 2012 13:56 by BILL
I made this for dinner tonight. I couldn't find the chestnuts, but I used already cooked chestnuts. The pork was delicious, so tender and moist. I made mashed potatoes with this and the sauce on top of the potatoes was outstanding. I will make this again, next time for a dinner party.

Posted: December 01, 2012 17:58 by RonniM
I had a hard time finding chestnuts, but finally find them a World Market.I made this forNew Years day. What a great meal!!! The roast was so tender it just fell of the bone. I am going to cook the one again next weekend for guest, but since I don't have any more chestnuts, I am going to use dried figs. How could you go wrong with such a wonderful meal.

Posted: February 12, 2012 20:07 by Aztecheart
I didn't have chestnuts so I used pine nuts. It turned out really well! And pork is still relatively an inexpensive meat.

Posted: January 21, 2012 15:59 by httpmom
lamama, rc did what I'm doing. I saved the leftover sauce to add mushrooms and chicken for a little different Chicken Marsala...with guests coming on New Year's I had to double the recipe and should have 1 1/2 the sauce. You think you have a lot of sauce left over!

Posted: January 06, 2012 10:51 by rpparisi
I didn't use the chestnuts this time. Added onion instead to pop the flavour. It was done WAAAYY before the 1st hour, but the meat was still juicy & tender. Had enough leftover gravy to freeze for the next time. Will DEF make again!

Posted: January 05, 2012 18:51 by rcjolley
For some reason my sauce didn't thicken when I added the milk and broth. The meat was delicious and moist, and the sauce very flavorful (after I added some extra spices). I don't understand why every time I make a recipe that calls for a sauce base I end up with about 3 times the amount I need. Sort of wasteful. I used Trader Joe's steamed chestnuts which were easy to use and tasted great. I added a tiny bit of smoked paprika and some honey at the end to balance it out. Will try it again, for sure.

Posted: January 04, 2012 21:34 by lamamadisempai
Made this for New Year's Day. It went great with polenta. A new staple for winter comfort food.

Posted: January 02, 2012 20:03 by rpparisi
Seems you have to roast the shelled chestnuts then soak for eight hous or over night. I would use a dutch oven. I plan to try this over the holiday's, maybe for New Year's Day.

Posted: December 21, 2011 13:37 by rpparisi
did you fully roast the chestnuts and then put them in the oven? did it over cook them? and did you use a roast rack for the pork or did you just set it in a pan?

Posted: December 20, 2011 18:25 by sminttt