A Postcard from Rome 4 Surprise in the Puff Pastry

I haven’t put any recipe on the blog in a long time and even longer – no memory from the Italian capital. I was also inspired by the recent Sunday lunch when we had invited guests to a smaller family celebration. And how does that relate to ancient Rome and why did I just take the picture of Forum Romanum – the place where all political life of Rome had been concentrated?

Today, the political center ruins are besieged by tourists, but I can quite imagine how the gate of the Senate House Curia in the northern part of the forum opened after the end of the morning’s work, the honored senators came out to have a quick light lunch and then headed to the bathhouse where they could continue their political debates. But when 4 o’clock pm approached, each of them looked forward to the greatest experience of the day – a dinner or banquet in the house of some prominent personality. The banquet lasted 6-7 hours, at least seven courses were offered! One of the characteristic features of the ancient Romans was eccentricity, which was also reflected in the menu at the banquets. The main goal was to surprise, to invent something unusual. It was not important to emphasize the taste of any of the ingredients, but to mix everything together or to cover up the taste so that no one at the table knew what they were actually eating. Very strong spice helped as well – Romans were literally obsessed with black pepper. Roman cooks liked to press everything and create something completely different from the mass so that the guests could entertain themselves by guessing what kind of meat they had on their plates. The hosts liked to offer everything that came from far away, the more exotic the place of origin, the better because everyone knew it must have been very expensive. Culinary eccentricities included for example a pig with stitched sausages in its belly, snails that crawled out of the plates during the dinner, camel feet, brains of flamingos and also peacocks, swans or parrots.

Today, I will offer you a recipe that is not extravagant but a surprise moment is guaranteed. Hardly someone at the table would be able to guess that inside the puff pastry, meat is hidden “in a meat coat”. 🙂

SURPRISE IN THE PUFF PASTRY

We need:

2 packs of puff pastry

300 g mixed minced meat

1 egg

1 clove of garlic

chopped parsley

1 pork tenderloin

salt, black pepper

spinach leaves (can also be frozen but fresh are better)

oil

egg to brush the dough

Method:

Wash the spinach and let the leaves drip well. Mix the minced meat with egg, crushed garlic and parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Brush the pork tenderloin with salt and black pepper and fry it in hot oil from all sides. Let it cool down a little. Roll out the puff pastry and spread the minced meat on it. Put the spinach leaves over the meat, put the pork tenderloin on top and wrap it carefully. Gently moisten the dough with your hand. Cut thin waves or other decoration from the other pack of puff pastry and place it on the dough. Brush with a beaten egg and bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 30 minutes. Serve with a vegetable salad or a sauce.