Autumn: Craving for Pork Loin with Oak Mushrooms and Chestnuts

Autumn is the time for chestnuts and in the mountains around Rome all the towns are ready to celebrate their chestnut festival in the square.

For many centuries, chestnut has given a notable support to the diet of the people, its nutritional values ​​gave it a role of honor in the survival of the less well-off families.

Then for a few years the chestnut was relegated to desserts, such as the very famous Mont Blanc, to jam and to Marron Glacè (but only the variety called ‘marroni’ which is larger in size).

For a few years the cuisine has rediscovered the taste of the chestnut also with savory dishes and it is used to flavor soups and side dishes, but also to make pasta and pizza with its flour.

Today we use it in a meat dish together with other typical flavors of the woods such as mushrooms and bay leaves, a plant that is often encountered walking in the countryside and which has its own unmistakable scent.

Pork loin with oak mushrooms and chestnuts recipe

To prepare this dish, we will first cook the meat, chestnuts and mushrooms separately. We start by cooking the chestnuts that we will boil together with some bay leaves.

Separately, we take the pork and remove the excess fat, we brown it in a pan where we have put some butter and oil and then we wet it with a good white wine. While it is browning on all sides, we make a mince of celery, carrot and onion that we will add to the meat after the wine has evaporated. We cover the pan and let it cook on medium-low heat; then we salt and pepper the meat and, if necessary, we add a little water.

While the meat is cooking, we prepare the mushrooms, we clean them with a damp cloth and remove the stem that we will not cook. We cut them and put them in a pan with garlic, oil and chili pepper.

When the meat is cooked, we remove it from the pan and let it rest, in the meantime we blend the bottom of the roast to create our sauce, taste and adjust the salt if necessary.

We add the already cooked chestnuts to the sauce, put the sauce back on the heat and let everything flavor.

We cut the meat into thin slices and assemble the dish flavoring some slices of meat with the sauce, then add the mushrooms and finely chopped parsley.

In the glass I put a Sicilian white with Zibibbo grapes, clearly dry.