This stuffed pork loin is so easy a husband can cook it - mine can! With only four flavor-packed, nutrient-dense ingredients, this delicious, showstopper of a dinner is in the oven in fifteen minutes flat. And it's a great stress reliever, as long as you don't skip the most important step.
The beauty of stuffed pork loin
Classy dinners don't need to be complicated, and they shouldn't require kitchen slavery. Take a stuffed pork loin recipe - classically called pork roulade. When roasted to a perfect doneness that's golden brown and bursting with flavor, it lends the meal an air of extravagance. But this one takes 15 minutes tops to prepare.
The technique for stuffed pork loin
Before you can stuff and roll your meat with delicious fillings, you need to create a little real estate. This is classically done by slicing the raw roast open lengthwise.
First butterfly the meat. From one of the long ends, begin slicing about a quarter of an inch up from the bottom of the roast. Use long, smooth gentle strokes with your best knife from the one end of the meat to the other.
Tenderize and flatten. This is more important with smaller cuts of meat, because it will help you create more surface area for your fillings.
Sprinkle a little water over it and cover the meat entirely with plastic wrap or parchment paper. To do this, take your daily frustrations out on the meat with a good round of pounding. I use a rolling pin, but a heavy pan or of course a meat tenderizing tool work as well.
Layer on the flavors. The filling ingredients can be anything, truly.
Cured ham and cheese for the classic cordon bleu, minced mushrooms and rosemary, or this version, garlicky olive tapenade and baby spinach. Layer them evenly down the center of the meat, leaving a little bit of space empty around the edges.
Roll, tie and roast. The final steps are to tightly roll the stuffed pork loin starting with one of the long sides, then tie it up with butcher's twine. No complicated tying technique required, good ol' knots spaced an inch or so apart will do.
Restaurant-style roasting technique
In any restaurant kitchen where the chefs are creating from scratch (not talking big chains here), time is perhaps the cooks most valuable ingredient. So throughout the years of fine dining, chefs have developed new ways to add flavor in a flash. One of those is what's called "oven searing".
How to oven sear stuffed pork loin
This method applies to any ample piece of meat you'd like to turn crispy and delicious on the outside, without slaving over the stove and a sizzling hot pan.
Begin with a high heat oven. When I want a nice crust on my roast, or extra-crispy skin on my holiday bird, I start with the oven at 450° F.
After it browns, turn it down. Once you get a lovely golden exterior, turn the heat down to 325°-350° F, depending on how quick you'd like to cook it. With pork, I find lower and slower for a majority of the cooking time results in a juicier mouthful.
Don't forget to let the meat rest
Pull the roast out when the internal temperature is just about 165° F (the goal temp for safe meat). Covered with foil, the pork will experience a little carry-over cooking that will get you to the target temperature. Any higher and you risk drying out the meat.
For a side dish, try creamed greens, parsnip purée or simple buttered vegetables, to complete a winning, glamorous dinner that's also therapeutic (all that pounding). My kind of meal.
Yours in dinner,
Olive Tapenade Stuffed Pork Loin
Description
An amazingly easy way to roast up a classy, delicious dinner! When it comes to a roulade filling, let your imagination run wild!
Ingredients
- 2-3 lb pork loin (or tenderloin)
- Olive tapenade (from scratch or store-bought), or mixed, chopped olives
- Baby spinach, or any small salad green such as arugula or mesclun
- avocado or high-heat oil for outside of roast
- Salt and black pepper
- butcher’s twine
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450° F.
- On a clean surface with a sharp knife, slice pork loin open horizontally to achieve one large, flat piece of meat. Sprinkle with a few drops of water, cover with plastic wrap and pound to ¼-inch thickness with a mallet or bottom of a heavy pan.
- Sprinkle inside of loin with salt and pepper.
- Spread olive tapenade/chopped olives, leaving an half-inch border. Layer baby spinach leaves over olives.
- Roll loin tightly and secure with twine, tucking in the ends of the loin to prevent filling from spilling out. If using a tenderloin, roll from one of the long ends.
- Drizzle with avocado oil and season the outside generously with salt and pepper.
- Roast at 450° F until the meat is a nice golden brown color, then reduce heat to 325° F and cook until pork reaches an internal temperature of 160-163° F.
- Let the meat rest covered loosely with foil for 10-15 minutes before serving.
- Slice into inch-thick pieces, and serve.
Notes
Always cook pork, chicken and any ground meat to an internal temperature of 165° F. I take large pork roasts and whole chickens out of the oven at around 160° F. The built-up heat within the meat will continue to raise its overall temperature for a few minutes after it's removed from the oven. This is known as "carry-over cooking". Always check your meat after it's rested to ensure it reached a safe temperature.
Keywords: stuffed pork loin, pork roulade, pork recipes, pork roast, pork roulade recipe
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