From: Recipes from a London Kitchen

by Cathy Gayner 

I love pastry and use it whenever I can. With a small amount of effort, you can make this look very pretty – but slice it at the table so your guests can admire it. The only important thing to remember is that you must use a block of puff pastry as ready-rolled pastry is far too thin for this recipe. 

SERVES 6 

1 large pork fillet 

2 medium onions 

2 tbsp olive oil 

6 slices of smoked streaky bacon 

90g jar of sun-dried tomato paste 

1 tbsp crème fraîche 

150g Boursin 

500g block of puff pastry 

1 egg yolk 

To tidy up the fillet and make it easier to work with, I trim off both ends and keep them to use another time. 

Cut along the fillet of pork to open it up, put it between two layers of cling film and bash it with a rolling pin until it’s as thin as you can safely get it. 

Stir the crème fraîche into the sundried tomato paste and smear it all over the inner surface of the pork. 

Cook the onions gently in the olive oil until they are really soft and then scatter them over the tomato paste. 

Cook the rashers of bacon in the same pan as the onions, until they are just about to go crispy but are still a bit floppy and then arrange them on top of the onions. 

Finally, spread the whole surface with Boursin and roll the fillet up lengthways. 

Roll out the pastry until you have a big enough rectangle to envelope the pork. Wrap the pork up in the pastry, using the egg yolk as glue. To stop the ends becoming too bulky, fold them as you would when wrapping a parcel, but cut away any excess pastry that you can. 

Put the pastry parcel seam side down on a baking sheet, decorate with the left-over pastry (I try to make it look like a present with a big bow) and paint it with the rest of the egg yolk. 

Cook at 200°c/Fan 180%/Gas 6 for 35-40 minutes or until the pastry is a rich golden brown. 

Nota Bene: 

This dish needs some sort of sauce and I generally make a gravy using the wonderful mushroom stock cubes sold online by Star. Just add some Marsala, Madeira or Port to the stock and boil briskly until you get the depth of flavour you want. 

The left-over bits of pork are excellent sautéed with some lardons and mushrooms and served with a reduced cream and mustard sauce. 

About Cathy Gayner: 

Cathy Gayner is an author based in London. Her books, Recipes from Le Rouzet, published in 2021 and its companion Recipes from a London Kitchen, were written solely in order to raise money for two causes she have always supported: the very elderly and the disadvantaged youth. Both books are available to purchase on Cathy’s website.