A few months ago in one of my WFD diaries, a commenter was eating roast pork, which reminded me of my favorite recipe for that. For a while this was one of my standard recipes, but I haven’t cooked it in years; my taste buds were glad to be reminded.
This is from Joy of Cooking 1997 edition, which says the recipe is from Florence, and the name derives from the Greek aristos, meaning “best”, as in “aristocrat”.
Pork Loin Arista di Maiale
serves 6 to 8
1 boneless center-cut pork loin roast, 2 to 3 pounds
4 large cloves garlic, minced
4 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary (or more)
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed (optional)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
minced fresh parsley (optional)
Mix together everything but the meat to make a stuffing. The published recipe makes what I consider insufficient stuffing; I use twice that much rosemary and add ¼ cup or more minced parsley.
Put a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 450°F.
With the fat side down, make 2 deep lengthwise cuts in the roast, almost through the meat. Put 1/3 of the stuffing in each of these pockets. Tie the roast with string (optional but I do it), drizzle a little olive oil on top, and spread the remaining stuffing mixture over the top.
Roast for 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 325°, continue roasting about 25 minutes per pound, until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part reads 155°F. Remove from oven, tent with foil, and let stand 15 minutes before carving. Yum! It is great either hot or cold, for sandwiches I recommend soft French rolls
I chose a fine ale to accompany my roast; since it’s an Italian dish a Chianti or Sangiovese would suit, or Pinot Noir.
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Once when I mentioned the 1997 Joy of Cooking, someone here informed me that it had not been a great success and was replaced rather quickly with a new edition. I wonder if this recipe wasn’t one of the reasons, because the published version said after the first 10 minutes at 450°, to turn the oven down to 250°. That might be OK for roasting beef where you only want it done medium; my experience was that it didn’t get the meat cooked in a timely manner and I had to turn the heat up to be able to eat dinner before 10 pm.
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What’s for dinner at your place?
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