After Saturday’s hearty midwestern pork-and-potatoes dinner, Mr. X made me dinner on Sunday–stuffed pork tenderloin with roasted potatoes and brussel sprouts. Pork overload! It was very tasty, and the very best part was the Butternut Squash soup he’d made that morning–full of ginger and perfectly buttery and creamy. Yum. I don’t really know how he made it, as I was very busy sitting on the couch, probably watching the Food Network or something. If I can convince him to recall how he made it, I’ll put it up here. Thankfully, he did manage to keep all his fingers in the squash cutting process.
Pork dinners two nights in a row, frankly, made me blanch when I remembered that I still had a pound and a half of pork tenderloin in my refrigerator, waiting for my cooking prowess (ha!) to transform it into something…cooked…and edible. What to do, what to do?
I bastardized this recipe from Epicurious, and roasted it up Monday afternoon for a week’s worth of sandwiches. Here is what I did to it:
Spicy Red Wine and Rosemary Marinated Pork Tenderloin
- 1 – 1 1/2 pound pork tenderloin
- 1 c. red wine
- About 1 tsp. rosemary (I used tried)
- 1 garlic clove, smashed
- About 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- Some salt and some pepper
Basically, just put everything except the pork into a sauce pan and boil it right up, until the wine is reduced by about half. Let it cool off, and then throw it and the pork into a ziploc bag to marinate (I had to cut the pork in half to get it to fit in the bag, but no matter). Marinate it as long as you want (though I’d say at least two hours), and when you’re ready to cook it, heat the oven to 400 degrees, and roast it on a baking sheet for 20-30 minutes. Let it rest before you cut it, and voila–slightly spicy, wine-flavory pork for tasty sandwiches.
This time I pulled the pork out of the at 140 instead of 145 degrees, and it was juicier, which I take to mean better. Something to remember for any future pork cooking. If I ever want to eat pork again, after all this madness.
(PS–The pork sandwiches were extra tasty with a little scallion hummus.)