Pork Loin Porchetta Style

Monday 5 September

Labor Day! and the temperature plummeted down into the 60s.  But we were too overworked to stay home and smoke a duck or a salmon, so we did a marinade of a nice quick-cooking two-pound boneless pork loin.

We marinated it with porchetta-style seasonings:

2 cloves of crushed garlic

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. ground fennel seed

1 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary

1 tsp. chopped fresh sage

1 tsp. chopped fennel fronds, from the odd sprout that's going mad in the garden; 

all beaten into about a quarter cup of oil, and then rubbed into the pork loin to marinate, anywhere from an hour to overnight.

What was left over of the herbs was sprinkled onto 4 sliced parsnips, 4 sliced carrots, and 6 halved shallots, and tossed with olive oil and salt.  It all went into a 350º oven for ca. 50 mins. until the pork reached an internal temperature of 140º.  Then it came out and rested for 10 minutes, while the vegetables, now all brown and savory, kept warm in the turned-off oven.

A savory and rewarding but easy meal, on a labor day when we actually had to labor.