Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Roasted Pepper and Cherry Pepper Pan Sauce

In a Hurry

SERVES: 4

The region of Campania, whose capital city is Naples, has some of my favorite food in all of Italy, which is why I visit it often. How can you not love an area that produces wood-fired pizza, great seafood, and lusty pasta sauces based on the locally grown tomatoes? Oh, and did I mention mozzarella di bufala and sausages infused with fennel and garlic? But it is the hospitality of the folks who have fed me this food that attracts me most. Bernardino Lombardo, owner of La Caveja, unassumingly opens his farm to both friends and strangers. Bernardino raises apples and pears; a large flock of capons, which he sells to restaurants in the area; and Cinta Senese pigs, a native variety that he lets grow to six hundred pounds or more. The meat of these pigs is heavily marbled, producing revered hams, cured back fat (lardo), and salamis. One night Bernardino panfried some tenderloin medallions in his own olive oil and dressed them with peppers from his garden and pickled cherry peppers from last year’s crop.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 12 1½-inch-thick slices pork tenderloin (about 1½ pounds total)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 2 teaspoons vinegar from the cherry peppers
• 1–1½ cups ½-inch-wide strips fire-roasted red or yellow bell peppers (store-bought or homemade)
• 6 bottled cherry peppers, stemmed, quartered, and seeded
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped scallions

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Combine the sage, salt, and pepper in a small bowl and sprinkle over both sides of the medallions. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Heat a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of the oil. Cook the medallions in 2 batches, adding more oil as needed, until lightly browned on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Set the medallions aside.
3. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat in the pan and reduce the heat to medium. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the white wine and pepper vinegar, bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Boil to reduce the sauce until it just begins to thicken. Reduce the heat to medium, add the peppers, and cook for 2 minutes more. Return the medallions to the pan and cook for 1 minute more to warm them through.
4. Serve immediately, garnished with the scallions.

ALTERNATIVE CUTS:

• An equivalent weight of scaloppine cut from the loin or sirloin.

COOK’S NOTE:

• To fire-roast peppers, char them over an open gas flame or under the broiler, turning, until blackened. Place in a paper or plastic bag for 10 minutes, then scrape off the skin, cut open the pepper, and remove the seeds. Pat dry.