Pork Marsala and Pappardelle Pasta

Good grief, my photography has dramatically improved since I first posted this.  It's time to re-shoot this recipe, which is one of myfaves.

I have to admit that I admire Rachael Ray, but I have grown tired of her over-the-top too perky and chatty TV personality. How diplomatic was that!? Seriously, I give kudos to Rachael Ray for showing me that I don't need to cook with canned cream soups, or processed foods, to put a good meal on the table in 30 minutes. I also give her a lot of credit for giving me a baseline on what pantry staples I should keep on hand, so that I can throw together a good meal.

I think that the reason I've tuned out of her show, in the last couple of years, is that I noticed a lot of recipes were repeats of others I had made. With that said, I happened to catch Rachael Ray's show when I was home on a school holiday. Pork marsala-- that intrigued me. So, I watched the show and realized that I had an unopened bottle of marsala, a frozen pork tenderloin and I try to keep a bag of Trader Joe's Pappardelle Pasta (a long wide egg noodle). All I needed was some fresh cremini mushrooms, and I was all set!


To prep the pork I cut the tenderloin into equal pieces:


Then I used my offset meat pounder (you can use a heavy skillet, but I'm a gadget freak) and gave the meat a good whack:


After dipping each medallion into seasoned flour, I seared the pork (yes, I am using a non-stick skillet...and I am able to achieve a nice crust-- but I also own some heavy bottomed skillets)).

Once all the pork was seared, I kept it warm under foil and then I started to saute' the cremini mushroms:

I love cremini mushrooms!

Then sprinkled flour over the mushrooms, and got ready to add my liquid:

...and watched the sauce thicken


... and I realized that I wish I had made more sauce (and I admit, I didn't measure)

The sauce was outstanding! I was beginning to feel very hungry, as I added the pork back into the sauce:

I served this with a vegetable side dish I had made on Valentine's Day. My family was very, very happy.

Rachael Ray, great job! This recipe will be a repeat performance. It was that good!