Apple Brandy Pork with Pumpkin Risotto

This is a comfort-food winner. Right up there with mac and cheese or meatloaf, the apple brandy pork tenderloin with pumpkin/gruyere/bacon/fried sage risotto on a cold rainy night was just about perfect.

I learned a few things along the way, too. I thought that the recipes this month would be a good way to use up the leftover jack-o-lantern flesh at the end of the month. Wrong. Those pumpkins aren't good for eatin'. Sugar pumpkins are the way to go. I also learned how awesome fried sage is. I mean, truly awesome. If you have some sage, by all means fry it.

You'll need about 75 minutes to complete this (ten of which were devoted to cutting the pumpkin), but it's totally worth it.

On to the recipe:

Pumpkin:

Preheat oven to 425.

Cut one small sugar pumpkin in half. Place cut-side down in a shallow dish with about 1/2 c. of water. Roast for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Once cool, the flesh should separate from the shell easily.

Pork Tenderloin:

• 1/4 c. soy sauce
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. apple brandy
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 pork tenderloins (because that's how they're packaged at the store)

Marinate the pork in the above mixture for at least two hours before cooking. Let the meat come to room temperature before baking at 425 degrees for 28 minutes (medium) or 30 minutes (medium-well). Let it rest upon removal, just before serving.

Sage:

• Ten or so sage leaves
• Vegetable oil

Heat oil over medium heat. Toss in a few sage leaves at a time, fry for about 20-30 seconds. Remove to a paper towel.

Risotto:

• 1 c. pumpkin (about half of what was cooked above), cut into small chunks
• 1/3 c. gruyere, broken into small pieces
• 2 strips pre-cooked bacon, cut into small pieces
• Fried sage leaves
• 1 c. arborio rice
• 3.5 c. chicken broth
• 1 tsp. chopped garlic
• 2 tbsp. olive oil or butter

A note about the chicken broth: I use a bouillon mixture for this, which has salt in it. You'll notice that there isn't salt anywhere else in this recipe. If you're going to use broth, you'll need to add salt to taste. Also, you may not need all of the broth, but prepare it just in case. You'll definitely need three cups, maybe not 3.5.

In a saucepan, boil the chicken broth. In a skillet, heat up olive oil and butter over medium heat, and add garlic, sauteeing for a few minutes. Add the rice for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Ladle in a cup or so of broth at a time, stirring constantly, until most of the water is absorbed by the rice. Keep adding more as you go- the process should take about 20 minutes. I may have mentioned this before, but Stir Constantly. Is it a lot of work? Yes. It is worth it? Yes.

Once the rice is to your liking (al dente for me), add the gruyere until melted. Then add the pumpkin chunks, the bacon, and few of the sage leaves, broken up.

Serve the pork and risotto, with an extra sage leaf or two for garnish. Tasty, tasty garnish.

Results:

Make this. Tonight. It's 9:30 on Sunday morning, which means you have plenty of time to go to the grocery store, marinate the pork, cook and eat. Trust me. All of the flavors worked perfectly together- the fried sage really made it delicious. The one thing I would change is adding some brown sugar to the pumpkin when roasting it. Otherwise, this was great. "And I would change 'great' to 'awesome'" - Annie.