Pork Saltimbocca – Jumps in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hands

You have to give it to the Italians when it comes to naming recipes, and this pork saltimbocca is a perfect example. By now, you’ve probably heard that “saltimbocca” means “jumps in the mouth,” which makes perfect sense if you’ve had it before.

Maybe we should start doing this to American recipes? For example, we could rename Buffalo Chicken Wings, “Order More Beer Bones.” Let me think that one through a little more, but the point is, I love the idea of trying to describe a food’s affect in its name.

If you don’t want to mess around making the fake pork stock with the chopped up trimmings, you can still use the gelatin trick, and simply dissolve a teaspoon into a cup of chicken broth, and reduce it by half. However, the browned scraps do add extra meatiness, and this way you won’t have to feel guilty about trimming off too much meat. By the way, if you’d made our demiglace, you could skip the gelatin and add a nugget of that.

Feel free to use the more classic veal loin for this recipe, but the pork tenderloin really works beautifully. It’s just as tender, and maybe even a bit more forgiving if slightly overcooked. Which reminds me, don’t overcook this. Slightly pink pork tenderloin is completely safe, not to mention juicy and delicious. So, whether you use pork, veal, or even a chicken breast for this, I really do hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 2 portions:

1 to 1 1/4 pound pork tenderloin, seasoned generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

about 12 sage leaves

4 large thin slices prosciutto

flour for dusting

2/3 cup white wine, or Marsala wine for a little sweeter sauce.
- Be sure season the final sauce before serving.

For the stock:

1 tablespoon butter

chopped pork trimmings

1 cup homemade or low sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup water, or as needed

1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

- simmer until reduced by half

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