What a wonderfully enticing meal? Don’t you agree?

This is one of the meals we fixed when Quickstep came over for dinner. When there is only Baby Lady and me, we don’t fix large meals. We wind up with too much food, too many leftovers and too much waste. It’s one of the reasons we cook fish and chicken thighs. You have smaller portions that are perfect for one or two. The problem is that every now and then I want to roast something. Quickstep, however, comes over once a week. When he comes over it allows me to fix things like roasted pork loin, eggplant parmesan, etc. Not only does he help us eat the dinner but we send him home with leftovers. Being the typical bachelor, he doesn’t want to waste his time cooking so he doesn’t. Instead, he comes over to the folks, eats and goes home with lunch for 3 days. Not a bad gig if you can get it, eh?

Anyway, Quickstep was coming over for dinner and we had a 2.5 lb. pork loin begging to be cooked. I had recently found the Ethiopian spice blend, berbere, which goes beautifully with pork. I also had some nice prosciutto that we needed to use. So, I figured a beautiful berbere spiced pork loin wrapped in prosciutto would be a wonderful meal for the family. This worked out fabulously. You get the wonderful flavor from the berbere seasoning and the salty, crispiness from the prosciutto on top. The roasted vegetables round it all out. Tasty, tasty, tasty. 🙂 Not only was it wonderfully flavorful with a beautiful presentation but it was remarkably easy. Prep, put it in the oven, forget about it for a while, remove, serve and enjoy. You really can’t get much simpler than this. I love it when meals come together like this. So, for those of you interested, this is what we did.

Ingredients

• 1 pork loin, roughly 2.5 lb.
• 1/4 cup berbere seasoning (found here)
• 1.5 lb. small potatoes
• 0.5 lb carrots, peeled and cut, large cut
• 1 white onion (large), sliced in 1/2 inch thick slices (roughly 4 slices)
• 1 – 2 Tbsp olive oil
• salt & pepper, to taste
• parsley, for garnish

Instruction

Pat dry the pork loin and generously season with the berbere seasoning.

Slice the onion into 1/2 inch slices and lay in a line on the bottom of the roasting pan.

Wrap the pork loin in prosciutto and place upon the onion slices.

The onions in this dish serve a two-fold purpose. First, it keep the pork loin off the roasting pan so it doesn’t stick or burn to the bottom of the pan. Second, as the pork loin cooks and the juices drain down, the onions develop a wonderful flavor. If you don’t like onions, you can simply put the pork loin on top of the carrots and potatoes.

Now, add the potatoes to the pan around the pork loin.

Next, add the carrots.

It was at this point I realized the error of my ways. Obviously, the intelligent thing to do was to put the carrots and potatoes in a large bowl. Add 1 – 2 Tbsp oil and season with salt & pepper to taste. Toss and pour into the roasting pan. Somehow, during this process I turned off my brain. It happens periodically. Now, where was I? Oh, yah. So, now I had to oil the carrots and potatoes using an olive oil misting spray.

Then, season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Place in a preheated 350 F oven and roast 20 minutes per pound or until an instant read thermometer registers 133 F. Remove from oven and allow to rest 5 – 10 minutes.

The net result will provide you a perfectly medium cooked pork loin. If you like your pork cooked a little more, cook it until the instant read thermometer reads 138 F. If you cook it any longer the pork loin will become very dry given it is a very lean piece of pork.

Place the pork loin on a serving platter. Ring it with the roasted vegetables and onions. Garnish with parsley on the ends and bring to the table.

Serve & enjoy