Pork fillet with cherry sauce

(Serves two)

150 g fresh cherries, halved and pitted
100 ml port or marsala
1 pork fillet, about 500 g
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 shallots or half small onion, finely chopped
Flour
150 ml chicken stock
1 tsp dark brown sugar
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves or half tsp dried thyme

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Put the cherries into a small bowl, pour on the port and leave to stand while you cook the pork. Trim all the fat, sinew and stringy bits from the pork (or ask your butcher to do it for you). Brush it all over with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Heat a small roasting tin or oven-proof frying pan on the hob and brown the fillet, turning it so that it gets well coloured all over. Transfer the tin to the oven and cook for about 30 to 35 minutes or until the pork is cooked through. Take it out of the tin, wrap it in foil and keep warm.

Add the shallot or onion to the drippings in the roasting tin and cook over low heat until softened. Sprinkle in just enough flour to absorb the fat and cook for two minutes more. Blend in the chicken stock and strain in the port, add the sugar and thyme, bring to the boil and simmer for another two minutes. Stir in the cherries and let them heat through.

Carve the pork into diagonal slices, transfer to warm plates and spoon over the cherries. Serve with some sauté potatoes, seasonal vegetables and the rest of the sauce.