Pork Fillet Tagliatelle alla Castellana: Recipe from Trentino-Alto Adige.
This creamy pork fillet tagliatelle is a beautiful elegant fresh pasta recipe from Trentino-Alto Adige known as tagliatelle alla Castellana in Italian. The fairly easy pork fillet sauce includes mushrooms, cream, brandy and pancetta! A delicious rich and filling Italian mountain recipe!
Tagliatelle alla Castellana.
I always find it so interesting how different the cuisine is in Italy’s regions, even though on a global scale Italy is a small country! So many dishes in the South of the country are made with olive oil, tomatoes and plenty of garlic. And, the pasta is either dried or homemade with just flour and water. Butter and cream are hardly ever used. In fact, Southerners traditionally don’t make pasta recipes like this mushroom and pork fillet tagliatelle alla Castellana.
In Northern Italy, on the other hand, dairy products find their way into lots of dishes and pasta is mostly made with eggs, even dried pasta.
The cream and butter.
In my opinion, the best cheese, milk, cream and butter in Italy come from the Alpine mountain areas. This is most probably because the dairy cows don’t spend their whole lives eating forage in a stall, but get to eat real grass in high mountain pastures and meadows! Even today, sheep and cows are still taken up to the pastures in summer and left to graze, under the watchful eye of herders or the farmer and his family.
In fact, we know a family who have a dairy farm near us. Every summer, the father takes his cows up to pasture. He spends most of the summer with them there. The cows are milked on the mountain. In fact, there are a number of delicious Italian cheeses made only with the raw milk from meadow grazing cows in summer!! This movement of livestock from the valleys to the mountain pastures is called Alpine transhumance. This is actually a very old pastoral tradition that dates back to the Bronze Age!
Needless to say, many Alpine recipes, like this creamy pork fillet tagliatelle alla Castellana, have a generous amount of dairy in them. This sauce is cooked with butter not olive oil and enriched with cream. It also includes brandy, although grappa would be more typical!
The pasta.
In the past, pasta wasn’t so popular in the Italian Dolomites. Polenta, bread and rice were the main staple ingredients of most dishes. And, they still form the basis for many recipes. However, nowadays, there are many great pasta recipes enjoyed in Italy’s mountain areas.
Tagliatelle is by far the most popular fresh egg pasta in Trentino- Alto Adige. In fact, I have a number of tagliatelle recipes from this region that I want to publish here on The Pasta Project. Among my favourites published so far is schuttelbrot tagliatelle with chanterelle mushrooms and speck. The pasta in that recipe is made from rye bread!
The pasta I used for this creamy pork fillet tagliatelle was a dried tagliatelle from our local pasta maker. Here in Italy, most towns have a small ‘pastificio’ (pasta maker), where you can buy fresh pasta. It’s a bit like going to the bakers! Many of these places also dry some of the pasta they make, so you can purchase dried too!
The pork fillet (tenderloin).
Pork is probably the most popular meat in Italy. There are some delicious Italian pork recipes. Plus, every region has its famous hams, sausages, salami and other cured pork products (salumi). Salumi or cold cuts were traditionally made when pigs were butchered in the late autumn. These were then stored to guarantee a supply of meat during the cold winter months.
This tagliatelle alla Castellana has two types of pork in it, pork fillet and pancetta. Some recipes I found for this dish included pork loin, instead of fillet and speck, instead of pancetta. So, you could use any combination. In other words, fillet and speck or loin and pancetta. However, pork fillet (also called tenderloin) needs much less cooking than pork loin. Plus it’s a lot more tender. I definitely prefer it for this recipe.
Other ingredients in this creamy pork fillet tagliatelle.
Apart from the pork, pasta and dairy, tagliatelle alla Castellana calls for mushrooms, brandy, one clove of garlic and a small onion. In the original recipe, the mushrooms are fresh porcini. I can imagine how good this dish would taste with them. Foraged mushrooms are a common ingredient in Italian mountain pasta recipes. However, dried porcini have a much stronger flavour that would swamp the other ingredients.
There are many versions of this recipe with other types of mushrooms. Since now is not the season for fresh porcini anyway, I used normal white champignons (button mushrooms). You can also use cremini (chestnut mushrooms or baby bella).
Making Tagliatelle alla Castellana.
This pasta recipe reminds me a little of a pork stroganoff. It’s got a rich creamy mushroom flavour that combines so well with the pork and pancetta. It’s also pretty easy to make and doesn’t take long. None of the sauce ingredients need long cooking. In fact, I actually put it all together in the time it took me to boil the water and cook the pasta. This is definitely a recipe that you will love once you try it!
If you make this tagliatelle alla Castellana recipe, I’d love to hear how it turns out and if you liked it. So, please leave a comment here on the blog or on The Pasta Project Facebook page.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Buon appetito!
Other pork pasta recipes on The Pasta Project.
- Italian braised pork ribs with pasta
- Cinnamon spiced pork ragu with tagliatelle
- Gramigna pasta with sausage
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Creamy Pork Fillet Tagliatelle with Mushrooms.
Ingredients
- 320 g tagliatelle (12oz) fresh or dried.
- 150 g pork fillet (5oz) tenderloin. Cut into small cubes
- 100 g pancetta (3.5oz) cut into small cubes
- 150 g mushrooms (5oz) I used white button mushrooms. Cut into half slices
- 1 garlic clove peeled and finely chopped
- 1 small onion peeled and finely chopped
- 60 g butter (2oz) unsalted
- 200 ml heavy cream (1 cup)
- 1 measure brandy
- salt for pasta and to taste
- freshly ground black pepper. to taste
Instructions
- Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Cut the pancetta into small cubes or strips (if using a thick slice of pancetta), cut the pork fillet into small cubes or strips too. Clean and slice the mushrooms. Then cut the slices in half.
- Put a pot of water onto to boil for the pasta. Add salt once it starts to boil and bring to the boil again.
- In a heavy skillet or frying pan, put the butter, chopped onion and garlic clove. Cook until the onion starts to soften slightly.
- Now add the sliced champignon mushrooms and continue cooking until they are slightly browned. Add the pancetta and continue cooking until this also starts to brown.
- Now add the pork fillet and continue cooking for just a few minutes. It’s important not to overcook the pork. It needs to still be a little pink.
- Turn up the heat and add the brandy and after the alcohol has evaporated add the cream. Lower the heat and let the sauce simmer to reduce for 3/4 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper as required. While the sauce is simmering cook the pasta al dente. Fresh tagliatelle only takes 4-5 minutes. Dried about 10 minutes.
- Save a cup of the pasta cooking water and drain the pasta. Add the tagliatelle to the mushroom and pork fillet sauce and mix everything together well so that the pasta is coated with the creamy sauce. If your sauce seems dry, add a little of the pasta cooking water.
- Serve immediately with grated cheese such as parmigiano or grana is required.
Notes
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Beth says
This really was delicious–thank you for the recipe. We used bourbon rather than brandy because that’s all we had, and half and half rather than cream for the same reason. You’re absolutely right that the cubes of pork don’t need a lot of time to cook–I cooked them very briefly and I think I could have done less. The flavor of the whole dish is intense considering how simple it is. Next time will probably cook the onions longer, and maybe do the mushrooms separately to get more color, but overall this was wonderful. Can’t wait to explore other recipes!
susan says
Planning to make this weekend. What is ‘a measure of brandy’?
Jacqui says
Hi Susan. A measure would be a shot which is 1-1.5oz in US or 25-35ml in UK. Am sure you’ll enjoy this recipe. Do let me know how it turns out.
Deborah Vogts says
This looks delicious. I love pasta recipes and always enjoy visiting your page. My favorite way to use tagliatelle is with a Ragu Bolognese Sauce. So yummy. I look forward to trying this recipe! Thanks for sharing.
Laura says
This Is the best food we have ever eaten. We all became fat on it. We want to eat it everyday.
PS I let the onions caremelize. The mushrooms too, just a little. I cooked the pancetta long enough to render nearly all the fat.
It was a great big flavor bomb.
Jacqui says
Dear Laura, I’m so very happy you liked this recipe so much! Sounds like you made it in a really flavourful way! I hope you’ll try some other of my recipes too! Stay safe and well!
henry turner says
i only have proscuttio and bacon. will either work instead of pancetta?
love everything you suggest. you’re providing a great service to those of us who only visit and love italy..
Jacqui says
Hi Henry, thanks for your comment. I think either prosciutto or bacon would work and add flavour. The best would be whichever is thicker. If you only have normal slices the bacon will produce more fat and can be cooked like guanciale/pancetta. But if the prosciutto is thin slices don’t cook for too long as it dries out. I’m happy you like my blog! Hope you are staying safe and well!
Connie says
I’m always amazed how knowledgeable you are about pasta and passionate too. Learn so much each time I visit. Italy is a small country compared with others on a global scale so to know that there are differences by the way people farm and make their pastas, is quite fascinating. As well as this dish too. So creamy, definitely love this!
The Pasta Project says
Thank you, Connie, that is very kind of you to say. As you say, it’s fascinating learning about the regional cultures. Italy may be small, but it has a very long and rich history!
Aline says
Made this for dinner last night, and loved it!! We wanted a comforting meal that was easy to make and this is exactly that! Delicious!
The Pasta Project says
I am glad you liked it, Aline. Comfort food is one joy we can safely partake in!
Jacque Hastert says
I love all pasta dishes! I can’t wait to see how this comes together in my home.
The Pasta Project says
I am sure it will be perfect, Jacque. I love all pasta dishes too!
Marcel Corbeanu says
This looks delicious and simple enough to make, even for someone that doesn’t have any kind of special cooking skills. I will try it but without the meat, as I’m a vegetarian ::)
The Pasta Project says
You will get the lovely flavour of the mushrooms, it will work perfectly as a meat free dish.
Cathleen @ A Taste of Madness says
I am loving pasta recipes these days. This looks so perfect! Bookmarked for later, thanks for the recipe! 🙂
The Pasta Project says
Pasta is a great ingredient – you can easily keep it until you need it and it is so versatile.
Kelly Anthony says
Wow-what a delicious combination of flavors. This creamy pork tagliatelle is sure to be a crowd favorite.
The Pasta Project says
Thank you, Kelly. If you are like me, you are looking forward to cooking for a crowd again!
Amy Liu Dong says
Every pasta recipe is definitely be a hit for me as I’m a pasta lover. Loved how creativity you’ve done on this recipe, will absolutely try this at home.
The Pasta Project says
Thank you for your comment, Amy. I am glad you like the recipe!