Pork Loin in Milk Sauce (Maiale al latte)

Today's recipe is a mash-up of three different dishes I made throughout my culinary career. The main part comes from my very first chef job at the Bakery Restaurant way back in 1985 when I worked for the late, great chef Louis Szathmary. One of his signature dishes was a fantastic slow-cooked pork roast stuffed with cserkesz kolbasz, a smoked sausage made from both beef and pork. The second component comes from Pili Pili, a southern French restaurant in Chicago whose menu traveled the Mediterranean like a luxury yacht hellbent on gastronomic discovery. I used to spit roast a pork rack over apple wood that I served in a milk sauce loosely based on a delicious maiale al latte, pork loin in milk sauce. The third part is a simple and homey squash gnocchi quickly tossed in brown butter and sage. The three were all found in one of my old kitchen journals and the resulting combination is an 'aha dish' perfect for the holidays!

AHA Dishes

For most of us, it usually occurs in the most inopportune times, never when we’re searching for it. To Archimedes, it happened in the bathtub. Newton experienced it while wandering an apple orchard. Arthur Fry: church. Each encountered an epiphany, that powerful moment of spontaneous insight. Archimedes shouted Eureka! upon realizing how to calculate density and volume; to Newton came the law of universal gravity; to Arthur Fry, Post-it notes. - Lauren Migliore author of 'The Aha! Moment: The Science Behind Creative Insight'

Every chef I know always carries a notebook filled with scribbled ideas and doodles mixed in with tried and true recipes to foster inspiration. For me, my notebooks chronicled my professional adventures, often reflecting the style of restaurant I was currently working in and the mood I was trying to evoke. Moments of creativity are elusive and come when they want to, not necessarily when summoned. In a brief two weeks, I could fill several pages or even notebooks with incredible 'aha dishes' to use as inspiration for the next six months in the kitchen when I had little time to think and be creative. You have to capture the muse 'in the moment' when it is present.Two pages from a 2003 kitchen journalMy old culinary notebooks still lay next to my desk at home, continuing to inspire my daily meals. This mashup is born from those journals. We drank an inexpensive rustic wine from Western France that went perfectly with the pork. Make the two recipes separately and then combine them onto your plates. Gnocchi can be prepared as far as shaping and the initial poaching the day before.Give it a try this week and hashtag me at #PistouAndPastis so we can see what you cooked.

Pork Loin in Milk Sauce

A fantastic way to roast pork and keep moist.

• 1 pork loin, 2-3 pounds
• 1 cserkesz kolbasz, or smoked kielbasa
• 3 tbsp black garlic paste (optional)

seasoning mix

• 2 tsp flake sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp ground fennel seed
• 1 sprig dried rosemary
• 2 cloves garlic (mashed)
• 1 tbsp olive oil

milk sauce

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 sweet onions (peeled and chopped)
• 1 head (yes head) garlic (peeled and rough chopped)
• 1 bulb fennel (chopped)
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 cup rich chicken stock
• 2 tsp ground fennel seed

the pork

1. Take a long thin knife, like a serrated edged bread knife, and stick it in the middle of the eye of the pork loin and gently shove it all the way through to the other end of the pork loin.

2. Smear your sausage with black garlic paste and stick into the hole and push. If you are using a larger girth sausage you may have to widen the hole gently before pushing the sausage through. Do not be alarmed it black garlic doesn't exactly stick to sausage completely.

   

seasoning mix

1. Mix all the ingredients together and massage into the pork. Let sit while you are preparing the milk sauce ingredients.

   

milk sauce and cooking the pork

1. Heat the olive oil and butter in a roasting pan set on a burner. When it is smoking hot, add the pork loin and brown all sides. 

2. Remove pork loin and add onions, garlic, and fennel to the roasting pan. Saute for five minutes then return the pork loin. 

3. Pour in milk, stock and ground fennel seed and roast at 350 for 60 - 90 minutes, or until done. Many websites will say a piece of pork is done when it is cooked to 160 degrees inside. I would say cook to 150 and let rest for 20 minutes. The pork continues to cook and will be juicier.

   

4. You probably have noticed that the milk curdled and everything probably does not look too appetizing. Nonetheless, scrape everything but the pork loin into a blender and puree the milk sauce until it has a smooth consistency. If it is too thick, add a small amount of water.

People eat results, not methods - Louis Szathmary

I love Louis's often cited quote. Do not waste your time stressing over every little detail in a recipe. Recipes are meant to inspire, to be altered and changed, and to grow into your own dish. Enjoy yourself, relax, listen to music and drink wine when you cook. To cook for others is to love them.

Sausages

Do not get too hung up on finding the exactly correct sausage, just find a great sausage. In the picture, I used a smoked kielbasa from Olympia Provisions in Portland. Here is their website: https://www.olympiaprovisions.com/collections/sausages 

Seasoning Mix

In the old days, I added a touch of sugar to the seasoning mix.

Fall Squash Gnocchi

Gnocchi are feather light dumplings usually made solely from potatoes but can be made from many different starchy vegetables. 

roasting the squash

• 1 potimarron or butternut squash
• 2 russet potatoes (scrubbed)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 sprig rosemary

making the gnocchi

• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp crack black pepper
• 1 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
• 2 cups flour

finishing the dish

• 8 tbsp grass fed butter
• 8 sage leaves
• 1/2 cup rich chicken stock
• 1/2 lemon (juice and zest)
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan

roasting the squash

1. Cut squash in half, remove seeds, then toss with potatoes, olive oil, and salt. Put into a large pan with the rosemary sprig, cover, and roast at 400 degrees for one hour, or until tender and can be easily pierced with a paring knife. Be careful of escaping steam when checking to see if your squash and potatoes are cooked.

   

making the gnocchi

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a rapid bowl. Get a bowl filled with ice cubes and water ready.

2. Remove squash and potato and place on your counter. Use a large tablespoon to scrape the meat out of the squash. Peel potatoes with a paring knife. 

3. Put both squash and potatoes into a ricer. Mix with egg yolks, parmesan, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. If it needs a bit of seasoning do so to your personal tastes. Mix in flour and feel the dough, it should be solid enough to roll in strands but not too bouncy. It is hard to explain but at the end of the day, the goal is as little flour as possible.

4. Cut dough into eight equal pieces. Start working with one piece at a time. Roll dough out on floured surface to about 1/2-inch-thick rope. Cut each 'rope' into 15 pieces. Grab each piece and roll along the back of a fork dipped in flour, making ridges on 1 side. As soon as each 'rope' is done, drop into rapidly boiling water and cook until the gnocchi floats back to the top, about two minutes.

   

5. Using a spiral wire skimmer or slotted spoon, remove gnocchi from boiling water and drop into ice water. The gnocchi will go from soft to hard as they cool. Repeat with all the 'ropes'. Toss cooked gnocchi in oil and refrigerate till you are ready to eat.

finishing the dish

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop gnocchi in for two minutes. 

2. While the gnocchi is reheating, brown butter in a heavy large saute pan over high till golden brown. Drop in sage leaves, chicken stock, lemon juice, and zest., 

3. Add gnocchi and Parmesan, adjust seasoning, toss well and serve.

Dry means dry

A lot of recipes call for boiling potatoes but ignore them. Moisture is the enemy of gnocchi. Roast everything in the oven and it will keep your riced starches much dryer. Dryer equates to less flour. Less flour makes a lighter gnocchi.

Addendum to my original recipe:

After you create the dough you need to roll and cook as quickly as you can. The longer the dough sits the more it absorbs the flour and becomes sticky, requiring more flour. 

Watch this gnocchi shaping video.