Noisettes de Porc aux Pruneaux de Tours

Noisettes de porc aux pruneaux is the Loire Valley’s most celebrated pork dish — a preparation that marries the region’s premium pork with its dried plum tradition (pruneaux de Tours, distinct from Agen, made from the Perdrigon violet plum) in a cream-and-white-wine sauce of remarkable elegance. The dish crystallizes the Loire’s culinary philosophy: fruit with meat, cream without heaviness, and wine as a sauce foundation rather than merely a beverage. Noisettes (thick, boneless pork loin medallions, 3cm thick, tied into rounds) are seasoned and seared in butter over high heat for 2 minutes per side until golden. The pork is removed and the pan deglazed with 150ml dry Vouvray. The pruneaux (12-16, soaked for 2 hours in warm Vouvray until plump) and their soaking wine are added to the pan with a bouquet garni and simmered for 5 minutes. The pork returns, the pan is covered, and everything braises gently for 12-15 minutes at 160°C until the pork reaches 63°C internal. The pork and prunes are plated; the braising liquid is reduced by half, then 200ml crème fraîche is stirred in and reduced to sauce consistency — a glossy, ivory-gold sauce with visible prune pieces. A few drops of red currant jelly stirred into the finished sauce add a subtle sweetness and gloss. The dish represents a lineage stretching back to medieval French cuisine, when dried fruit and meat combinations were standard. The Loire has preserved this tradition while the rest of France abandoned it, and this dish is the reason.