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I through together this pork tenderloin, thinking that I would heat up some left over rice to serve with it, but then Lon called and he was going to be late coming home from work. The pork was already in the oven and almost ready to come out. It would no longer be hot when he arrived. Quickly, I switched dinner plans, the room temperature pork would now be made into a sandwich. When Lon got home, I sliced the pork into 1/2 inch slices, and laid it on ciabatta with a spread (half mayo/half whole grain mustard).

The key is not to over-cook the pork tenderloin. There is an old misconception that pork needs to be cooked to well-done, but we now know that pork only needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of 137 degrees to kill Trichinella Spiralis. The USDA currently advises that pork be cooked to 160 degrees (medium) but when I make tenderloin (an extremely low-fat cut of meat), I prefer medium-rare (145 degrees). This gives the sliced pork tenderloin a roast beef like quality, moist and juicy.


Three Herb Pork Tenderloin

• 4 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon Hungarian Paprika
• 1 tablespoon roughly chopped Parsley
• 1 rounded teaspoon chopped rosemary
• 1 rounded teaspoon chopped thyme
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 1/4 pound pork tenderloin
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix together olive oil, granulated garlic, paprika, parsley, rosemary, and thyme. Set aside.
3. Break each celery stalk in half. Place the four pieces on the bottom of a shallow pan.
4. Rub the herb mixture over the pork tenderloin evenly and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Rest the tenderloin on top of the celery and bake for 25 minutes or until medium rare.
5. Let is sit for at least 10 minutes before slicing. Tastes great at any temperature, even left-overs straight out of the fridge, so try not to reheat it.

posted by Jessica at 9:06 AM 9 Comments add a comment