Fig Balsamic Roasted Pork Tenderloin and Sautéed Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta were two new recipes for us from skinnytaste.com. We were very excited to try both and we were really rewarded of our efforts! Here’s how it went for Kim on Wednesday night.

I had the advantage of being able to buy pre-shredded Brussels sprouts, which saved a lot of prep time. As a result, I started on the pork first and got that into the oven so I could sauté the Brussels sprouts while the prow as cooking. I did not have the fig butter called for in the recipe but I had some very good fig preserves instead; I loved the way the preserves tasted when mixed with the balsamic vinegar, so I think he substation was a good one! I made the glaze and coated the pork and had it int he preheated oven in no time at all.

I then turned my attention to the Brussels sprouts. I didn’t have quite two pounds, so I just used slightly less of the other ingredients—a little shy of two ounces of pancetta, a healthy tablespoon of olive oil instead of one and a half, and just three cloves of garlic. I used our trusty Dutch oven to first sauté the pancetta and then added the other ingredients. I found that I had the turn the heat up slightly higher than medium-low to get things going but that might have been my impatience to have tasty Brussels sprouts!

As I finished the Brussels sprouts the pork was ready to come out of the oven. It was perfect cooked after about 25 minutes. I let the pork rest for about 10 minutes before slicing. The meat was juicy and delicious with the fig balsamic glaze adding just enough sweetness to balance out the slightly bitter with the Brussels. The brussels sprouts were also excellent, with anise hint of saltiness from the pancetta. (I think Tony went back for thirds!) We paired this dinner with a dry Riesling, which was a perfect match for the pork. This was a simple and elegant dinner that hardly made it feel like a Wednesday night.