Fig and Blue Cheese-Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients

1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed

1/2 cup dried figs, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Cooking spray

1 tablespoon apple jelly, melted

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450°. Slice the pork in half lengthwise, cutting to, but not through the other side. Open the halves, laying pork flat. Place pork between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle figs and blue cheese over pork, leaving a 1/2-inch margin around outside edges. Roll up the pork, jelly-roll fashion, starting with long side. Secure at 2-inch intervals with twine. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper, and place on a foil-lined jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450° for 20 minutes. Brush jelly over the pork. Bake an additional 5 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160° (slightly pink). Let stand for 10 minutes. Discard twine; cut pork into 12 (1-inch-thick) slices.

~Source: Cooking Light

Patti’s Notes: Two oven mitts up, this one is a keeper. I only made a couple of minor deviations from the original recipe. I used fresh figs, Gorgonzola instead of Blue Cheese and sugar free apricot jam instead of apple jelly because that’s what I had in the house. The pork was extremely tender. The pungent cheese and the sweetness of the figs complimented each other nicely. If you don’t eat pork, this recipe would also work well with chicken. I think you could also play around with this and use dried cherries if you can’t find figs. Paul doesn’t like Blue Cheese but he’ll eat Gorgonzola, which is similar to blue but not as strong. If you don’t like that either you could probably sub goat cheese, although, for me that would be too bland. If using dried figs I’d probably run them thru the food processor because they tend to be chewy if not reconstituted. Jelly roll pan is not necessary; you can use a regular baking sheet.

Healthy Meter: Here’s the info from Cooking Light: Calories: 274, Fat: 9.2g, Protein: 28.4g, Carbe:19.7g, Fiber: 2.5g.

Easy Meter: This is a little more difficult than marinating a tenderloin and tossing it in the oven. It’s still pretty easy but moves to intermediate because you have to butterfly the pork; roll it up and tie it. Gourmet skills not necessary.

Anne Burrell would be proud of my tying technique! She taught me well.

The meal suggestion from Cooking Light was to serve with rice and green beans. I made roasting fingerlings with garlic and onions and roasted beets.

ETA: I normally would have done a green veggie with the potatoes, not two root vegetables. They had organic beets on sale when I bought the pork. My sister was coming for dinner and we love beets. Since the oven was already going to be on, what the heck!