You're shaking your head in agreement, yes? You should be. If you're not, you're lying.
Alas, making porchetta honestly requires a great deal of commitment, a great deal of skill, and a great deal of time. One or two of Annalena's readers may possess all of those, but she doubts most of us do. She certainly doesn't. So when she saw a recipe for "weeknight porchetta," she lunged at the chance to make it. Animals fled, ground shook, but it was triumphant:
That looks good now, doesn't it? Indeed, several of you have seen this picture and commented on it already. Annalena is particular fond of Jess' response which was: "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck." That's a good thing. And if you want to get similar reactions, make it. Yes, you can. Here we go.
First, we gather the materials which we are going to use to "dress" our pork. You will need four cloves of garlic, chopped as finely as you can. Then, you will need a nice branch of rosemary. Get the needles off, and chop them. Put the rest of the rosemary in the bunch aside: you're going to use it.
A full tablespoon of fennel seeds. Crush them as best you can. A good knife used in chopping format will do it, but you can also use a rolling pin (roll over them ragazzi, don't bash them unless you want to send them flying). And, last but not least, half a tablespoon (or , a teaspoon and a half), of kosher salt.
This is a snap of the elements, waiting to be exploited:
Now, mix all of this together in a bowl, with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, so that you get a nice paste. You're going to apply this to a pork tenderloin. And you're ok with this, because you eat pork tenderloin because as far as pork goes, it's so lean...
Well, we're going to fix that REAL soon. Annalena's recipe called for a pound and a half tenderloin. Truth to be told, ragazzi, it is very difficult to find a pork tenderloin that large, especially if you use artisanal, or humanely raised, pork (and you should be). Hence, her tenderloin weighed just over a pound. You rub the paste all over this tenderloin, and then, ideally, let it sit in the fridge overnight, or for the day.
When you're ready to cook, preheat your oven to 425. Now, get some bacon . This, ragazzi, is what caused Jess' reaction. Use good quality stuff, and cover the tenderloin. Annalena's recipe said that four strips would do for a pound and a half. WRONG. Annalena used four to barely cover the smaller one (always remember, ragazzi, that recipes are approximations. What the writer used may have been bigger than what Annalena had, and so on , and so forth. Remember the purpose: WHY are you using the bacon? If you cover the tenderloin in 3 strips, fine. If you need 5, also fine. DO NOT get anal retentive and say "IT SAID FOUR STRIPS FOR A POUND AND A HALF.").
So, this is what you get for putting in your oven:
You now take that remaining rosemary onto the bottom of a glass baking dish in which the tenderloin can sit, easily, and then put the meat on top of it. Into the oven, for 45 minutes.
For about ten minutes, you will wonder if this is working. Then, you will smell the rosemary. In Annalena's mind, NOTHING smells quite as good as rosemary roasting. It is intoxicating. It truly is. After about 20 minutes, you will begin to smell the bacon. Annalena is not so fond of this smell, but it is what it is.
And at 45 minutes, you have what is at the top of this entry, but for those who missed it:
It's worth seeing a second time, isn't it? Let it rest for about ten minutes, and then slice down. One of the criticisms of pork tenderloin, is that it dries out when it's cooked. Well, the bacon wrap takes care of that. Another criticism is that it has no taste. Well, we took care of that now, didn't we?
Annalena plans to make this again, and is wondering about using citrus peel and juice in her rub. She'll let you know. In the meanwhile, go and cook Kinder. It's cold, and cooking will make you happy. Yes, it will.
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