Pork Tenderloin in Prosciutto with Baked Couscous

This was a nice recipe to make after a few nights off, and it was a excellent bounce back from Wednesday's so-so chicken cutlets! I got this from Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy, which is a great little cookbook. It comes with a helpful DVD of Ramsay making 5 of the trickier recipes in the book; I wonder how many of the celebrity chefs will do something similar in the next few years.

This recipe comes from the "Posh" chapter. While it is fairly posh tasting, it's much easier to make than you might assume from its wordy name! I had to scale back the amounts a bit since it was just Wei and I eating it (the original recipe says it serves 6). If I did it over again, I would probably make the whole thing so we could have had some tasty leftovers!

4 thin slices of prosciutto
1 pork tenderloin, trimmed of silverskin and most of the fat
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
4 springs of fresh thyme, leaves stripped
3/4 cup couscous
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons of chopped, fresh, flat leaf parsley
Marsala wine
1/2 cup chicken stock or broth

Lay the prosciutto slices on a cutting board in two rows of two each, overlapping them slightly, then lay the pork tenderloin across the middle. Wrap the prosciutto over the tenderloin and season with pepper. Lay out a sheet of tin foil that is large enough to accommodate the tenderloin, drizzle some olive oil down the middle and sprinkle with the thyme leaves. Place the pork on top, bring the edges of the foil up, and fold together over the pork, then roll to enclose, twisting the ends to seal. Stick in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Put the couscous in a bowl, and pour over 3/4 cup of boiling water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand for 10 minutes. Add the Parmesan and parsley and fork through. Season with salt and pepper, about 1/2 teaspoon each. Spray the inside of two large ramekins with a nonstick spray, and spoon the couscous evenly into each, pressing down with the back of the spoon as you go.

Place the pork package and the couscous-filled ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the pork and turn the oven off, leaving the couscous cakes inside.

Warm about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Carefully unwrap the pork from the tin foil, reserving any cooking juices in the foil. Place the tenderloin in the skillet and sear for 3 minutes on all sides until the prosciutto is browned and crisped. Remove to a plate and place back in the oven.

Add a splash of Marsala to the skillet along with the reserved pork juices, stirring to deglaze. Add the stock and boil until the liquid is reduced by half. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary.

Cut the pork into thick slices. Unmold a couscous cake into a shallow bowl and surround with pork slices. Spoon over the Marsala sauce.


I probably should have made a green veggie to go with this, but whatevs :-)

Rating: This is awesome
Yay for pork wrapped in pork!! You can't go wrong with it.