July 20, 2014 Pork Tenderloin with Pasta and Pesto with fresh Roasted Garden Vegetables

July 20, 2014 Pork Tenderloin with Pasta and Pesto with fresh Roasted Garden Vegetables

We ate fresh thawed Dungeness crab with coleslaw and Zia Champagne in the garden.   I made my favorite sauce; a mayonnaise sauce with shallots, a little white dry vermouth, a dash of white wine vinegar and a dash of olive oil.  Suzette made her favorite sauce; a cocktail sauce with catsup, lemon, horseradish, and a dash of Tabasco.  We opened the Blanc de blanc Zia champagne we had bought at the Vine and Wine Festival at Las Golondriñas last Saturday.   It was a lovely morning and we loved eating the fresh crab while we watched the fish play in the pond and the water lilies in bloom.   The wine was pleasant, but not world shaking, as you would expect of a non-vintage brut.  

Then Suzette worked in the Garden, picking lots of turnips, carrots and beets.  She also thawed out a couple of small bottles of the pesto she had made last summer. 

We wanted an easy meal for dinner so we decided to make a pasta dish with the pesto and some of the PPI Pork tenderloin.

Suzette cleaned, tossed in olive oil and then roasted carrots, beets, turnips, and fresh garlic in a 350˚ oven for 46 minutes.

She then boiled penne pasta, drained it and tossed it with pesto and the roasted vegetables.

Then in a separate skillet Suzette seared the PPI pork tenderloin. 

When the pork was warm, she plated pasta and vegetables and chunks of warm pork tenderloin onto each plate.

We decided on a light red wine for the dinner and I went to the basement and fetched a bottle of Wellington 2009 Estate Vineyard Sonoma Valley Grenache.

This was the first bottle of Wellington Grenache we have drunk and as it turned out that the Grenache was rather heavy with lots of body and less fruitiness than I thought it would have; quite different than the lighter and cheaper Beaujolais or Spanish Grenaches usually drink.

Some of the vegetables were a bit tough with fibers in them.  I realized in a flash how peasants who rely on a garden must eat at the end of a growing season; simply, but at the tough end of nature’s bounty.  Perhaps that is what is meant by the prayer, “Thank you, our Lord, for this life sustaining food.” 

Bon Appétit