This recipe is adapted from The Joy of Cooking. The main modification is that if you make it my way, it won’t be dry and overcooked. The main virtue of this recipe is its simplicity. The only way it could be easier is if it just read “pick up the phone and ask someone to make roast pork loin for you.”
Get a 3 pound pork loin. Don’t cut the strings.
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.
Coarsely chop up a tablespoon or more of fresh rosemary. If you don’t have fresh rosemary, dry is OK. In a small ramekin, mix the rosemary, a teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper, a couple of teaspoons of salt, and a generous tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Rub this mixture all over the pork loin. Put it in a shallow roasting pan (on a rack is best, but it’s not a big deal if you don’t have one). Roast for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 250 degrees F, and insert your digital probe thermometer into the thickest part of the loin. Set the alarm for 148 degrees F. Go play your favorite videogames for a few hours. When the alarm goes off, remove the roast, cover with tinfoil, and let it rest for 10 minutes. Cut the strings before carving. If you did it right, the center of the pork should be slightly pink, and it should be juicy throughout.
You can make an easy pan sauce from the drippings by adding some wine and perhaps a little more salt and reducing it on the stovetop.
Serve with a simple salad, the vegetable of your choice, and a glass of red wine.
Pork + Rosemary = deliciousness.
If you make small slits all over the surface and poke slivers of garlic in before you start roasting, that will be very good too. Well, if you like garlic.
The slivers-of-garlic trick is one of my favorite things to do with a lamb roast.
And yeah, a simple roast done with a probe thermometer is one of the best combinations of dead-simple + delicious possible. I cannot understand why everyone doesn’t have a digital probe thermometer.