Marinated Roast Fillet of Pork Studded with Chorizo

Toño Perez, chef-proprietor of Atrio restaurant in Cáceres, streamlines Extremadura's traditional dishes to bring out the best of their subtle flavor complexities. Here is a good example of his inspired roots cooking. Its flavors and ingredients were inspired by the feast that followed the annual pig killing, sausage and ham making. The pork is infused in the region's traditional adobo, or curing marinade, basted from within by chorizo sausage, and finally served with a spiced potato puree.

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

4 fillets of Iberian pork, each weighing 11 oz

Salt and pepper

9 oz potatoes, peeled

1 morcilla (black sausage), cooked and crumbled, with a pinch of bittersweet pimentón

1 Iberian chorizo (or other soft cooking chorizo)

A few sprigs of fresh oregano, to garnish

For the adobo:

1 tsp crumbled fresh oregano

1 tsp bittersweet pimentón

2 cups white wine

8 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:

Stir together the ingredients for the adobo in a dish and use them to marinate the pork fillets, turning them from time to time. Remove the meat, drain it, and pat dry.

Set the oven to 400 degrees F. Boil the potatoes, mash them to a light puree and beat in the morcilla, or black sausage with a pinch of pimentón. Keep the puree and warm. Lay the seasoned fillets in a shallow-sided roasting tin, cut small incisions in the top half of each one and insert the chorizo pieces. Roast in the oven for 12 minutes and reserve the cooking juices. Spoon some potato puree into the center of each person's plate and place a fillet on top and pour over the cooking juices (do not deglaze). Finish with a few stems of fresh oregano or another aromatic herb.

Recipe courtesy of Spain GourmeTour magazine.