This juicy Stuffed Pork Tenderloin loaded with sweet Italian sausage, spinach, and bread stuffing, served with a mushroom marsala sauce could be your new signature dish!
Throughout my career as a restaurant chef, I always enjoyed creating flavorful dishes using ingredients I had on hand. Taking a lackluster dish and turning it into a culinary adventure!
This restaurant-style dish is easy to make and an inexpensive way to feed a crowd. You’re going to love my Stuffed Pork Tenderloin Recipe!
What Ingredients do I need to make a Stuffed Pork Tenderloin?
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make Stuffed Pork Tenderloin. In Chef Speak this is called the “Mise en Place” which translates to “Everything in its Place”.
Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed up the cooking process, it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
What type of Marsala wine should I use?
This will contradict what most chefs will tell you, so you’re going to have to trust me on this one. Believe me, it will make a big difference in the flavor of the dish and it will not make the sauce sweet, it’s just how they differentiate between the two varieties.
Dry Marsala, in theory, should be more flavorful. But either I haven’t found a good dry marsala or it just doesn’t work as well as advertised in my dishes.
How do I make stuffing for a Pork Tenderloin?
- Remove the casing from the sausage and place into a hot frying pan with a little olive oil.
- As it cooks, break up the pieces so they look like ground meat. When finished place to the side and allow to cool slightly.
- In a clean pan add the spinach with a little water.
- Cook the spinach leaves until completely wilted, then squeeze out any additional water
- In a large bowl, mix together the bread cubes, sausage, spinach, mozzarella, egg and chicken stock.
- Blend all the ingredients together and allow to sit for 10 minutes before using g.
How do I Stuff a Pork Tenderloin?
- With a sharp knife split the pork tenderloin, long ways from end to end.
- Place the pork on a cutting board and cover with a sheet of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a meat mallet pound the pork tenderloin to flatten. This will make it easier to stuf
- Divide the stuffing between two pork tenderloins.
- Roll the stuffed pork tenderloin, along the long side making a log, tucking the edges in to seal it.
- Coat the pork tenderloins with bread crumbs
- Place a baking sheet pan with 3 tablespoons of olive oil into a 350-degree preheated oven pan for 8 – 10 minutes to allow the oil to get hot.
- Carefully remove the sheet pan from the oven, and very carefully place the tenderloin in the hot oil to sear it slightly, gently rolling to allow all the sides to briefly sear. *Alternatively, this can be done in a large saute pan on the stove and then placed on the sheet pan
- Place the pan with tenderloins back into the oven and bake for 25 minutes
*Use a good meat thermometer to check the internal temperature. It should read a minimum of 145 degrees F. You prefer a more well-done pork roast let cook until 160 degrees has been reached.
How do I make a mushroom marsala sauce?
- Saute mushrooms over medium-high heat in a tablespoon of olive oil for about five minutes or until they are tender. Add more oil if needed.
- Add the marsala (reserve two tablespoons) allow to cook for 3-4 minutes
- Add the chicken stock, reduce heat and allow to simmer
- Roll pieces of softened butter in flour to make a beurre manie
- Add the beurre manie to the simmering stock. This will help thicken the sauce.
- Add cream and continue to simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
- Before serving add the remainder of the marsala to boost the flavor.
Your going to love how easy it is to make this stuffed pork tenderloin and your friends and family are going to love how delicious it is!
Recipe FAQ’s
The Federal Government says pork is safe to eat at 145 degrees. I question that because pre-cooked ingredients are included in the stuffed tenderloin. Therefore, it should come up to 165 degrees to be considered safe.
More Pork Recipes You’ll Love!
Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Sausage and Spinach
Ingredients
Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
- 2 in Pork Tenderloin usually two a pack
- 1 lb sweet sausage
- 8 oz bag baby spinach
- 2 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 cups stale bread cubes
- 1 eggs lightly beaten
- 4 oz chicken stock more if needed
- 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
Marsala Sauce
- 1 cup Marsala wine
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 12 oz mushrooms – sliced
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoon flour
- 1 oz heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Pork Tenderloin
- begin by cleaning up the tenderloin, removing silver skin and fat.
- Split tenderloin down the middle
- Cover the split tenderloin with plastic wrap and using the flat side of a meat hammer, pound out the pork to increase the size of the tenderloin.
Stuffing
- remove the casing from the sausage and cook in a frying pan breaking up the pieces so they look like ground meat. (allow to cool slightly)
- in another frying pan with a little water in the pan cook the spinach leaves until completely wilted, then squeeze out any additional water
- Using stale bread, cut it into cubes or small pieces. *Or use a premade bread cube.
- In a large bowl, mix together the bread, sausage, spinach, mozzarella, egg and chicken stock, blend all the ingredients together*
Stuffed Tenderloin
- divide stuffing between two pork tenderloins, and roll tenderloins, along the long side making a log, tucking the edges in to seal it.
- dredge the stuffed tenderloin in seasoned bread crumbs.
- Place cookie sheet into preheat oven with olive oil in pan and allow it to get heat for about 10 minutes.
- remove pan from oven and very carefully roll the tenderloin in the hot oil to sear it slightly, Be very careful hot oil can burn!
- Place pan with tenderloins back into the oven and bake for 25 minutes
Marsala Sauce
- saute mushrooms in a little olive oil for about five minutes or until they are tender.
- add marsala (reserve two tablespoons) and chicken stock, reduce heat and allow to simmer
- roll pieces of the butter in flour to make a Beurre manie, then add to the simmering stock to help thicken the sauce.
- add cream and continue to simmer
- before serving add the remainder of the marsala to boost the flavor.
Finish
- slice stuffed pork tenderloin about ½ thick and serve with mushroom marsala sauce
Diane
Delish! Starting to make many of your recipes. No one in the house is a fan of spinach, so I made it with some finely diced sautéed mushrooms and the rest. I love the beurre manie trick! Yayyyyy for learning something easy and new. Nice not having to brown the tenderloin first and just heating the sheet pan in the oven with some olive oil for 10 minutes. Brilliant!!! Makes life so much easier along with the butter trick. This was just an excellent recipe all around. Thanks so much for posting and you have a new fan.
Chef Dennis Littley
You’re very welcome! I happy to hear you adjusted the recipe to your taste preferences, thats what cooking is all about! I look forward to hearing from you as you try more of my recipes.
Sheila M OBrien
Thank you, Chef. I plan to make this in a few days.
More clarification needed on number of whole tenderloins in this recipe: Agreed no “cutting” but the directions say to “split a TL lengthwise” – this results in two pieces to pound thin and stuff. If applied to 2nd TL from package, there are now 4 stuffed and rolled TL pieces that should be on the cookie sheet.
Right?
Sheila M OBrien
Dear Chef,
Love your recipes!
Re: Stuffed Pork Tenderloin…
All sausage disagrees with me, be it processed in USA or made freshly in Europe. What would you suggest to add to the stuffing when leaving sausage out? Thick cut Bacon from Deli counter? Other adjustments because of Bacon fat? Or just omit it?
Chef Dennis Littley
You can just omit the sausage, it’s not a problem. If you wanted to add meat to the stuffing it could simply be ground pork.
Sheila M OBrien
Thank you, Chef. I plan to make this in a few days.
More clarification needed on number of whole tenderloins in this recipe: Agreed no “cutting” but the directions say to “split a TL lengthwise” – this results in two pieces to pound thin and stuff. If applied to 2nd TL from package, there are now 4 stuffed and rolled TL pieces that should be on the cookie sheet.
Right?
Chef Dennis Littley
No, its just one piece each. It says split not cut in half. It’s split to flatten it, then pounded. If you look at the pictures it only shows 2 pieces of tenderloins and 2 stuffed tenderloins.
Sarah
So, am I reading this correctly? You are saying that 1 pork tenderloin (out of a pack of 2) is going to feed 6 people? Or should I create 4 halves from the 2-pack?
Sheila M OBrien
Sarah, I just found recipe and your 2022 question. Did you ever get an answer to 1 tenderloin cut into 2 pieces vs 2 into 4 pieces for amount in recipe? Very 1st photo shows 2 full TLs curled around each other; rest show results from 1/2 TL stuffed. I can’t figure it out either.
Chef Dennis Littley
If you look at all the step by step pictures you’ll see there are two tenderloins. The images or instructions never show the pork being cut into pieces. The picture of the ingredients shows two whole tenderloins curled simply for the image. One is smaller and that happens when you buy a two pack of them.
Kelly Baumgartel
I have never like comments on recipes only to state what changes people make. However when I started this recipe I was positive I had Marsala, much to my chagrin I did not! I substituted fresh pressed apple cider. It worked out great my family loved the entire recipe.
NOTE: One other self teachable moment was
DO NOT use a cast iron skillet to make the Marsala sauce, the color was hideous (like bad day grey)
Thanks for your wonderful recipe, it’s a definite TO DO OVER!
Chef Dennis Littley
happy to hear that your dinner worked out with the changes you made. Recipes are about being flexible and using what you like and what you have on hand to adapt them.
Lynne
Great recipe! I didn’t change a thing and it turned out great! My husband says the recipe is a definite keeper.
Chef Dennis Littley
I happy to hear you enjoyed the stuffed pork tenderloin! I hope you find more recipes on my site to try.
Denise
Do you use sweet or dry Marsala
Chef Dennis Littley
I always use sweet marsala, it has a better flavor and really isn’t sweet
Dee
Has anyone tried this with Gluten-free bread? Just wondering how it turned out.
Chef Dennis Littley
As long as the bread does not break down it should be okay
john davies
Hello Chef! This was definitely worth the time to make after coming home from work. My wife and I worked together and the meal wasn’t just delicious, it was fun to make. Besides the good food, its a learning experience. I didn’t know what the Beurre maine was, its a great and easy way to thicken the sauce. I have never had Marsala before; my wife purchased the sweet Pelligrino as you suggested and was that good. One has be careful not to sample more than you need for cooking. Back to the meal; the stuffed tenderloin came out as good as your photo’s portrayed, very tender and flavorful. We served it with red mashed potatoes and corn accompanied by the delicious Marsala sauce. The baby spinach in the stuffing was exceptionally good adding great taste and color to the meal. Thanks again for another great recipe.
Chef Dennis Littley
Thank you so much for sharing your success with me John, and I’m so happy to hear that you and your wife had a good time making the pork together! I will be starting a new cooking show on Google+ at the beginning of March and you’ll be able to cook along with me. The videos will be archived on Youtube, so you can watch them when you have time.
Thanks again for letting me know and so glad you enjoyed a wonderful dinner!
Cheers
Dennis
Christi Brice
This recipe is amazing, I found it earlier and made it for dinner tonight! I used a boneless porkloin instead, and it was so moist and flavorful! My family adored it! Thanks!
Chef Dennis Littley
thanks for letting me know you enjoyed my recipe Christi!
Renea
I cooked this tonight and instead of marsala gravy i made sweet onion gravy with garlic and mushrooms, and it was amazing! Thanks for this recipe!!!
Chef D
Thank you so much for letting me know, You’re version sounds really tasty! My wife won’t eat onions sadly, but I know how good it must have made that dish!
Jessica
I actually looked up this recipe online and came across your site and boy am I happy I did. I’ve been trying different dishes lately and this is by far the best ingredients to use. Thanks for sharing, will be trying this dish for the first time tomorrow.
Chef D
Thanks Jessica, I know you won’t be disappointed, the stuffed pork tenderloin is delicious!
Tom
delicious, will definitely repeat again. Came together perfectly, cooked to 145, rest 20 minutes perfect
Tom
delicious, will definitely repeat again. Came together perfectly
Jackie
Thank you for answering my question Dennis.
I actually ended up making the dish shortly after I posted my note. I didn’t have marsala in the house, so used white wine & a little port, which worked out very well.
It was delicious – I’ll definitely make it again!