R E C I P E S
Roast Pork with Rosemary and Garlic
Roasting is cooking by radiant heat. In its pure form that means in front of, not over, a fire, where a large cut requiring long cooking would become too smoky, distracting from the taste. Grilling over a fire is for thin, tender cuts that cook quickly. For roasting, since most of us don’t have a hearth, we settle on a hot oven, which, though the results aren’t quite the same, can be very good. A classic roast provides a contrast of deeply browned exterior — even crisp in places — with a succulent rare interior, an effect impossible to achieve with low-temperature methods. Roast pork, to me, has the most flavor cooked to medium, which is more than the current fashion, but pork is naturally less juicy than beef or lamb, so it’s especially important not to take it beyond medium — not to let the temperature rise higher than 140° to 145° F (60° to 63° C). The easy sauce that follows is equally good with roast leg of lamb, especially pale young lamb. There are many varieties of shell beans, familiar and obscure, sometimes with colorful names (Red Kidney, Soldier, Marafax, Jacob’s Cattle, Cranberry, Sulfur, Cannellini, the flageolet family), but I’ve never been drawn far into the distinctions of taste. More important is the way they’re cooked — with a bouquet of herbs, a carrot, a celery stalk, and an onion pricked with two cloves, salt being added only at the end of cooking — and any sauce that may go with them. Many different wines can accompany roast pork, both whites and light reds, from Loire Valley Chenin Blanc to Pinot Noir grown in cool places to light Nebbiolo and a good dry Lambrusco.By Edward Behr
1 head garlic
a pork loin, weighing roughly 7 pounds (3.2 kilos) with the bones or 4 pounds (1.8 kilos) without, cut from the center or shoulder end
good olive oil
salt and black pepper
¾ cup (175 ml) white wine
1 or 2 branches of fresh rosemary
For a milder taste, peel the garlic cloves (if green sprouts show, split the cloves and pry out the sprouts); bring them to a boil in cold water, and cook for about 30 minutes, until a clove, removed and pressed with a fork, dissolves into purée; drain and set aside. For a stronger taste, separate the cloves but leave them in their skins to prevent burning, and roast them in the pan together with the meat, placing a little wine or water in the roasting pan at the start, again to prevent burning.
Heat the oven to 450° F (230° C). Coat the exposed lean meat of the pork loin with oil and season the entire surface with salt and pepper. Place the meat in a roasting pan, surrounded by the unpeeled garlic cloves (if you prefer a stronger flavor), and roast for 15 minutes. Reduce the setting to 325° F (165° C), and cook until the center of the meat or the center next to the bone reaches 140° F (60° C). Remove the meat to a warm platter, where the internal temperature — especially if the bones are present — will continue to rise, at least another 5° F (3° C).
Skim or pour off most of the fat from the pan, set the pan over medium to high heat, and deglaze with the wine. Put the contents of the roasting pan, including the garlic if you roasted it, into a saucepan together with the rosemary, and boil until the liquid is reduced to a light syrup. If you prefer a milder taste, add the boiled garlic now, mashing the roasted or boiled cloves to a paste and mixing it with the liquid in the pan. Strain this sauce, pushing the soft garlic through the strainer, pressing and then scraping the purée from the other side and stirring it back into the sauce. Thin the sauce, if necessary, with water. Season well with salt, grind in pepper, and bring to a boil. Pour the sauce over the roast to mingle with the juices in the platter or, if you’re serving shell beans, mix the sauce with the cooked beans. Serves 6 to 8.
From The Art of Eating Cookbook
