It’s all about luck in this world. Why is it that some domesticated animals share our bed while others get stuck in the mud? It’s the story of the dog and the pig. The former nowadays even have their own trimming parlours – and if the owner is one Paris Hilton, then the dog will have a diamond studded collar. Not so the pig. Apart from the movie ‘Babe’, pigs have always had it tough, labelled as the dirtiest animal on earth (remember Rasher in the Beano?).

And it’s ironic really, because it was the very first animal to be domesticated – way before the dog, even before the cow come to that. The pig, thanks to its very flexible character, was domesticated as early as 5000BC, from the wild boar, somewhere in the Near East.

And that was when pork came to be on the kitchen menus, and in such varieties: it could be cooked, cured or smoked. Pigs were also clever with their noses – leading early man (and woman) to those priceless delicacy of underground fungus called truffles. Moreover their hide was used for shields and shoes and their bones for tools. Really, all considered we should have pig monuments all over in recognition of their contribution to humanity. Perhaps that is Why George Orwell in Animal Farm gave them the top-most position of power.

Pork in Malta has always been a bit of a speciality. D.H. Lawrence, the twentieth century English author, who came to Malta in 1920 remarked that Maltese bacon was excellent. According to Pippa Mattei, in her book ’25 Years in a Maltese Kitchen’, he was so taken to it that: ‘when staying in a villa outside Taormina in Sicily, he wrote to a Maltese friend asking him to send some Maltese salted butter and some of that good Maltese bacon, because Italy was suffering from depravation after the first world war.’ One wonders what he would have said to this scrumptious pork fillet rolled in puff pastry.

Ingredients:

1 pork fillet

1 puff pastry

150 grams blue cheese

100 grams feta cheese

1 tartufo paste

butter

1 onion

1 egg

fresh cream

flour

Serves 2

Preparation time: 30 min

Cooking time: 20 min

Method:

Heat the oil in a large frying-pan, add butter and cook the fillets over moderate heat until they are lightly browned in order to seal the meat. Remove from the frying-pan and drain on absorbent paper.

To make the stuffing mix the onion, blue cheese, tartufo paste and feta cheese with some olive oil in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Roll out the pastry thinly on a floured surface. Place the pork fillet in centre of the pastry and spread the stuffing mixture over it. Fold over the edge of the pastry and roll it over. Seal the edges with some the egg, and use the remaining egg to glaze the pastry. Bake in oven at 200C for 20 min. Serve warm.

For the sauce, heat some butter in a pan, then add the remaining feta cheese and blue cheese and top up with a glass of white wine. Leave to simmer for a few minutes. Pour on top of the parcelled fillet.