Today’s dish is roast pork with almonds, a recipe in which the tenderness of the meat contrasts with the crunchiness of the toasted almonds. A creamy sauce, slightly sweet due to the presence of honey, pleasantly embraces the meat and makes it very delicate. A dish that for its particularity can also be presented on the festive table. The Ghisanativa pot is perfect for cooking the meat, leaving it tender and juicy.

Ingredients for 4 – 6 people

• 1 kg pork loin
• 550 ml meat stock
• 120 ml white wine
• 1 medium onion
• 3 sage leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 sprig thyme
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 60 ml extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ tablespoon honey
• 50 g peeled and roasted almonds
• 1 teaspoon flour
• salt to taste

Preparation methodology

If your butcher hasn’t done so, tie the roast tightly with kitchen string.

Put your cast-iron pot on the stove, pour in the oil, and let it heat up well.

Add the roast and allow it to brown well on all sides, avoiding piercing the meat with a fork. Add the peeled and diced onion and allow to brown for a few minutes over a moderate heat.

Deglaze with the wine and add the herbs.

After a few minutes, add the stock in small portions, keeping 50 ml aside for the final cream.

Season with salt and put the lid on. Leave to cook for about 40 minutes over a moderate heat, then turn the roast over to the other side and continue cooking for a further 40 minutes, checking that the cooking liquid does not dry out completely and adding more stock.

When the time is up, turn off the heat, take the roast out of the pan and place it on a chopping board.

Remove the leaves from the herbs.

Cut the cooled roast into slices of the desired thickness.

With the aid of an immersion blender, blend the cooking juices, which should not be very thick (if this is the case, add more stock).

Dissolve the flour in the stock without creating lumps.

Put the pan back on the heat and bring the liquid to the boil.

Add the honey and let it melt.

Pour in the flour mixture and stir quickly with a wooden spoon.

Add the coarsely chopped almonds and stir again.

To serve the roast, place some of the cream mixture on a serving plate, place the slices of meat on top and drizzle with more sauce and almonds.

Tips

If you don’t have almonds as requested in the recipe, simply soak the dried fruit with the peel in a saucepan of very hot water for one to two minutes, drain it and peel it with light finger pressure. Toast them by placing them on a baking tray in the oven at 150° for a few minutes. Once cold, the almonds should be crispy.

Annamaria Iacono

I am Annamaria, married to Calogero and mother of two, Andrea and Valentina. I live in Agrigento, in beautiful Sicily, a land kissed by the sun almost all year round, dotted with almond groves and orange and lemon gardens, where you can indulge in the intoxicating scent of zàgara. In 2015, I started my blog “Annamaria tra forno e fornelli” (Annamaria between the oven and the cooker), in which I try to transmit to those who honour me with their visit, my passion for cooking, the simple and traditional cooking of my grandmothers, who, with very little, managed to create extraordinarily good dishes. I discovered Ghisanativa by chance and I fell in love with it. I have always appreciated cooking in iron pots and this pot reminds me of the cooking of the past and allows me to continue to use the wood-burning stove we have in the country to make all the dishes I want.

This recipe was prepared using