I confess to being rather lazy at times and most weeknights I will go for an easy option when it comes to feeding us. I did plenty of fancy smancy when I worked as a Chef at the Manor. In my real life I don't necessarily need to have a gourmet meal every night.
Special occasions are obviously on a different scale and I am very happy to do a special meal, which requires a lot more work. Holidays, Celebrations, Dinner Parties, Lunch with friends, etc. They are well worth the extra effort and I really do enjoy preparing for those!
This recipe I am sharing today has been adapted from one I found on the Betty Crocker site. I am always looking at the Betty crocker page as well as the Pillsbury page. I used to buy their little monthly magazines when I lived in Canada quite often.They were always in the stands next to the cash registers in the grocery stores and I was always tempted by them. Although I did not always cook many recipes from them, due to lack of availability of ingredients, etc. I found them quite inspiring and was always able to glean some great ideas from them.
You can find their recipe here. Traditionally Porchetta (pronounced Por - ketta) is an Italian type of pork roast in which a fattier cut is boned, stuffed with plenty of garlic, herbs and seasonings, rolled up skin on, and then roasted on a spit over an open fire for about 8 hours. Sounds delicious!
This is sort of a riff on that. It doesn't use a fatty cut of pork however. It uses pork tenderloin. I love Pork tenderloin. It is one of my favorite cuts of pork. If you buy bone in pork chops, it is that tender nugget of meat that you will find next to the bone on theone side. It is so juicy and delicious!
It also cooks very fast in comparison to other cuts of pork. Pork tenderloin is a long narrow muscle of meat that comes from the muscle that runs down the backbone of the pig. It is one of the leanest, more tender cuts of pork on the market, and so can also be a bit pricey sometimes.But it is worth every penny. Rated as extra-lean it actually has a nutritional value and profile that rivals that of boneless, skinless chicken breast meat! It lends itself beautifully to this type of recipe where it is going to be cooked quickly and easily.
Like Chicken breast, it can dry out very easily as well, so you don't want to be doing that if you can help it. Cooking it quickly at a high temperature is the way to go.In this recipe it gets rubbed in a delicious herb mixture composed of garlic, fennel seeds, thyme and crushed red pepper flakes. Over here they are called crushed chilis and they do pack a lot of heat, but there is just enough of them in this for you to know that they are there, but not so much as to be obnoxious.
Once you have rubbed the pork all over with the spice mixture, you then wrap it in Prosciutto, which is a type of Italian cured ham. This helps to keep the flavours of the rub next to the pork and also helps to shield it from drying out too much.
The pork is roasted on a baking sheet with a quantity of vegetables. Sweet potatoes, red onions and brussels sprouts.
I have to confess that this is not my favorite way of cooking Brussels Sprouts. If I made this again I would replace them with another vegetable. I don't really think Brussels Sprouts lend themselves well to being roasted, or maybe mine were just too small.
I ended up with lots of burnt leaves and chewy over-done sprouts. I think maybe green beans would be a better choice! Or even broccoli florets. Or maybe just really large brussels sprouts.
The Sweet Potatoes worked beautifully being roasted, as do the red onions. Both ended up beautifully caramelised. When picking vegetables to roast along side of the pork, you will want to pick ones that will be cooked and lightly caramelised in the appropriate cook times. I think regular potatoes might take too long, bu I could be wrong.
The Pork itself ended up beautifully cooked. Just slightly pink, which is okay today. Our modern pork is not as dangerous as it used to be years ago. A small amount of pink indicates that it has been cooked well enough, but not so long as to have dried it out. Remember it will continue to cook whilst standing.
The flavor were spot on. It was moist and tender and had a lovely garlic kick. I also really enjoyed the flavor of the thyme and the fennel seeds. Fennel can have a bit of a licorace quality to it, but not overpowering. It is a flavor that works very well with pork.The prosciutto got nice and crisp without being dried out as well. Both were so yummy. The proscuitto lent a smoky and salty flavour, which is why you don't really want to have any salt in that rub you put on the pork.
I cut the pork into large thick slices as you can see. Just look at how juicy and tender that looks. If I make it again (and I will) I will make a nice sauce to serve with it. Maybe something creamy and buttery. Nothing too spicy because I wouldn't want to take away from those lovely porchetta flavours.
I served this with some dauphinoise potatoes and baby peas. I buy the dauphinoise potatoes frozen, and they are beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
If you keep a good variety of frozen potatoes and vegetables on hand you can go a bit wild with your protein and spend a bit of time on that because you know your sides are not going to take much of an effort.
The leftovers of this pork were lovely serve cold and sliced thinly with some potato salad. I highly recommend this Potato, Egg, and Green Bean Salad. You really don't need anything else. Its really nice.
At the end of the day we both really enjoyed this quick and easy supper. It fed the two of us for two days running and was not boring in the least.
It was deliciously different and is something I recommend and would/will make again on another occasion, with perhaps some different vegetables on the side. I give it an English Kitchen Two Thumbs Up!
Sheetpan Porchetta Dinner
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Yield: 4Author: Marie Raynerprep time: 10 Mcook time: 35 Mtotal time: 45 MNothing could be easier. Everything roasts on one baking sheet. If you line that with foil, clean-up is minimal! The meat is delicious, tender and perfectly cooked!
Ingredients:
- 2 TBS light olive oil
- 1 pound Brussels Sprouts, trimmed and halved
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 extra large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 medium red onion, peeled and diced
- 1 tsp dried minced garlic
- 3/4 tsp dried thyme leaves
- 1/2 tsp bruised fennel seeds
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 1/4 pound pork tenderloin
- 4 thin slices of Italian Proscuitto
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 225*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Line a fairly large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- Mix the brussels sprouts in a bowl along wih 1 TBS of the oil and 1/4 tsp each of the salt and black pepper. Toss together and then place on the baking sheet.
- In the same bowl toss the sweet potato cubes and onions togeher with 2 tsp of the oil and 1/4 tsp each of the salt and black pepper. Place onto the baking sheet with the sprouts and then roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Pat your pork tenderloin dry and remove any silverskin using the edge of a sharp knife.
- Mix together all the spices and the remaining tsp of oil in a small bowl. Rub this mixture all over the pork tenderloin. Wrap the tenderloin in the proscuitto slices, tucking the ends underneath the tenderloin.
- Place onto the baking sheet with the vegetables. Roast in the heated oven for 23 to 25 minutes until the pork is no longer pink inside and the vegetables are tender. Tent with foil and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.
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