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Sweetbreads With Mushrooms and Cherries

5.0(19)

Hearth Restaurant recently held a dinner featuring modestly priced Burgundy wines. Among the dishes paired with them were sautéed sweetbreads served on scrambled eggs seasoned with black truffles.Sweetbreads are a superb choice with red Burgundies. I wanted to pick up the cherry flavors that showed up in the Côte Chalonnaise wines we tasted, so I skipped the eggs and instead added dried cherries.There is a certain amount of preliminary preparation — soaking, peeling and poaching — required before sweetbreads are ready to cook. Some recipes also call for pressing them, but I think that just makes them dry, which they certainly are not in this pinot noir-friendly dish.

by Florence Fabricant

Open original recipe

Dinner, Quick, Main Course

Servings

4 first-course, 3 main-dish servings

Total time

30 min

Calories / serving

593 kcal

Ingredients (13)

serves

1 1/3 pounds sweetbreads
Saltsalt
1 lemonlemon
1/2 cup dried cherriescherry
1/3 cup dry red winered-wine
3 tablespoons flourflour
Freshly ground black pepperpepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butterbutter
1 1/2 ounces pancetta, in one slice, dicedpancetta
1/2 cup finely chopped oniononion
24 very small cremini mushrooms, stems removedmushroom
2/3 cup chicken stockchicken-stock
1 tablespoon minced tarragontarragon

Instructions (4 steps)

01Rinse sweetbreads under cold running water. Dissolve 1 tablespoon salt in 2 cups cold water in a 2-quart bowl. Add juice of 1/2 lemon. Add sweetbreads; water should cover them. Soak 1 to 2 hours. Place cherries in a dish, add wine and set aside at least 2 hours.
02Remove sweetbreads from water and use a sharp knife to peel off translucent membrane and remove any bits of fat. If sweetbreads separate into sections, that is fine. Place sweetbreads in a saucepan, cover with cold water, add almost all remaining lemon juice, bring to a slow simmer and poach 15 minutes. Allow to cool in liquid, then refrigerate until ready to use.

03Remove sweetbreads from liquid. Separate into 1- to 2-inch nuggets. Pat dry. Season flour with salt and pepper and dust sweetbreads. Melt butter in a 12-inch skillet or sauté pan with a cover. Very lightly brown sweetbreads. Remove to a dish. Add pancetta and onion to skillet. Sauté on medium-low until starting to color. Add mushrooms and sauté until softened. Add cherries with wine, and stock. Stir to deglaze pan. Bring to a simmer, add sweetbreads, baste with sauce.