Mario Batali's Spuma di Mortadella con Salsa di Ciliegie: Pork Foam with Cherry Sauce

Spuma di Mortadella con Salsa di Ciliegie: Pork Foam with Cherry Sauce is a Mario Batali recipe. You can find Mario's recipe on Food Network's web site, here.

I was most intrigued by the English translation...Pork Foam? What the heck is pork foam? It sounded a bit disgusting, but Mario has never disappointed me. After a quick review of the ingredients, I envisioned a tasty Pâté spread on toasted baguette slices. The accompaniments of walnuts and brandied cherries made this a perfect savory offering for Concert in the Park Challenge Cherries.

With a bowl of beautiful Bing cherries...

And a nifty Oxo Cherry Pitter...

I was quickly able to pit the cherries and prepare the brandied cherries. I should have started these about a week or two prior, but already had a container of cherries, marinated in Maraschino cherry liqueur, in the refrigerator. I followed a recipe for brandied cherries and then added the Maraschino-soaked ones for extra flavor.

In preparing Mario's Cherry Sauce for the recipe, red wine is reduced by half and the brandied cherries are then added to the wine and simmered for about 5 minutes. I preferred to simmer the cherries 20-30 minutes until most of the wine was reduced to a syrup. This is a picture of the cherries before being added to the wine reduction.

The pork foam was extremely simple to prepare: Place 1 lb. of diced mortadella in the food processor...

Pulse until finely chopped.

With the motor on, add the cream mixture in a slow steady stream until all cream has been taken in. The cream mixture is whipping cream warmed to a simmer, freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, balsamic vinegar, and a few grinds of pepper...

The foam is then poured into 6 or 8 individual dishes, covered tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerated for several hours to set...


This is what it looks like on toasted baguette slices. As you can see, it's not foamy at all - it's more like a course mousse. For garnish, I used pecans instead of walnuts. I also used Amaretto liqueur in the brandied cherries in place of Mario's walnut liqueur.


Kai, our German friend, loved it and preferred to simply eat it with a spoon, straight out of the ramekin!