Mrs. Spud loves Autumn. The crisp mornings, cosy evenings, warm colours… she loves it. Me, I’m not so fussed. I see dark mornings, lights on earlier, long sleeves…

But one thing I do appreciate is the produce. As the bounty of Summer slows, the patient foods appear. The ones that take their time in the earth and develop deep, sumptuous flavours. This recipe is a celebration of those Autumnal flavours, sweet butternut squash, tumbling with sharp apple in a crisp rosti, topped with rich pork.

This is part of the Waitrose #AutumnWarmers campaign, celebrating these flavours. I’ve also selected produce from my corner of England, with Essex pork and Suffolk apples which are some of the best in the world. Check the Waitrose website for more details, including their competition.

The squash rosti – squashti! – is sweet and soft with a crisp skin, topped with delicious pork and drizzled with cider-rich pan juices.

I love a potato rosti and this is a great way to get more veg into your dinners.

pork fillet with butternut squashti

Gary @ BigSpud

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Ingredients

  

• 500 g pork fillet

For the rosti:

• 1 butternut squash deseeded and peeled
• 1 baking potato peeled
• 2 sharp apples cored and peeled
• 1 teaspoon dried sage

For the gravy:

• A large splash of cider
• 400 ml chicken stock

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 170C. Get a frying pan over a medium heat.
• Lay out a clean teatowel. Grate the squash, potato and apple together and spread out over the teatowel. Season generously and scatter over the sage. Gather up the teatowel and squeeze out as much liquid as you can into a sink. The more juice you get out, the crisper it will be. Add a dash of oil to the pan and tip the grated veg into the pan. Squish down into the pan with a spatula and continue to cook for five minutes. After five minutes add a couple of knobs of butter to the edges of the pan. Using a large plate and a dash of confidence flip the rosti out and over. Tidy up the edges with your spatula and transfer to the oven to cook for fifteen minutes.
• While that cooks get on with the pork. Get another pan over a high heat. Slice the pork into medallions, season with salt and pepper and add a tablespoon of oil. Cook in the pan for 8 - 10 minutes, flipping often until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 65C. Put on a board to rest for five minutes.
• Add the cider to the pan to deglaze, and when reduced to nearly nothing add the stock and bubble away for a couple of minutes until slightly reduced. Check the rosti is done with a sharp knife - there should be no resistance. Serve with the pork on top and spooned over gravy.

This post was sponsored by Waitrose.

Want more Autumnal inspiration? I recommend…

Kavey’s easy butternut squash soup 

Helen’s squash salad

Katie’s pumpkin traybake