Pork fillet in arugula and cress sauce

Ingredients for 8 servings:

• 2 pieces of pork fillet
• 100 g arugula
• 1 bowl of cress
• 6 cherry tomatoes
• 50 g Italian herbs, frozen, or 1 shallot and 20 g each of basil and parsley
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 pack of bacon, diced
• 2 cups of cream
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 balls of mozzarella
• 1 handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 30 g butter
• 2 tbsp oil (walnut)
• 1 tbsp vegetable broth
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 25 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 5 minutes

Clean the arugula and blanch it in boiling water for 1 minute, rinse briefly under cold running water, wring it out, roughly chop it, and immediately place it in a medium to large bowl. Add the herbs, two cloves of garlic (chopped or pressed), the chopped cress, the sour cream, the cream, and the stock, and blend with a hand blender until finely chopped. The arugula won’t be very finely chopped, nor should it. Season with pepper. If you don’t chop the arugula roughly beforehand, it will wrap itself around the hand blender. This makes cleaning more difficult and you end up with long strands in the sauce. Press a clove of garlic into a shallow baking dish. Use the piece of butter to pick up the garlic and rub it all over the baking dish. Then set the rest of the butter and garlic pieces aside. Cut the fillet into 3-4 cm thick medallions and rub with salt and pepper. Heat the walnut oil in a large pan, add the medallions and the knob of butter to the hot pan, and sear the meat on both sides. Set the medallions aside and sauté the bacon cubes in the same pan with the cooking juices. Add the bacon cubes and juices to the bowl with the sauce and mix well. Place the medallions in the casserole dish and spread the sauce evenly over the meat, ensuring the meat is completely covered. Trim and quarter the cherry tomatoes and spread them over the surface. Tear the mozzarella into pieces and spread them over the top. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the meat and bake for about 25 minutes in a preheated oven at 200°C (180°C fan-assisted oven), until the surface is nicely browned. The meat should now be cooked medium-rare. If you like it well done but the crust is already good, cool the oven to 120°C and continue cooking for another 5 minutes. Serve with green pasta, white bread, and a dry Riesling.