Stuffed Pork Loin

Wally1158

Pork Loin stuffed with spinach, Italian sausage, apple and parsnips

Modified from a Naked Whiz recipe found here: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/porkloin1.htm


Ingredients:

Pork loin – Cut about 6 to 8 inches off a full size (not the little 2” wide pork loins in pre marinated packs) boneless pork loin, and save the rest for some other dish (or cook the whole thing, but it’s easier to cover a 6-8 inch loin with bacon strips than a longer loin).  Unroll (butterfly) the loin - Use a knife to cut along the length of the loin and cut like unrolling a jellyroll so you end up with a flat sheet of meat about ½ an inch to an inch thick.  It can be pounded with a meat hammer if desired.  You can marinate the meat for several hours or overnight if desired.  Go here for pictures of the procedure: http://www.culinate.com/articles/culinate8/how_to_butterfly_a_boneless_pork_loin


1 lb. bacon
Hoisin or other sweet sauce
Cotton butcher twine
Meat thermometer

Optional marinade:
½ c soy sauce
2 TBS Worcestershire  sauce
3 clove garlic crushed
Black pepper to taste


Stuffing:
2 links Italian sausage
2 TBS butter
1 large sweet onion, diced
Salt & pepper to taste
2 ribs celery, diced
1 med. To large parsnip, diced
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
½ tsp ground sage
12 oz package of chopped spinach (or 1 bunch of fresh spinach, washed)
 
Cut casings off sausage and sauté till cooked through.  Crumble sausage when cool.  Set aside.
Heat butter in a Dutch oven or other large pan and add onions.  Sauté onions uncovered in butter for 5 min.  Add salt & pepper to taste.  Add remaining ingredients except spinach and sauté for 5 min uncovered.  Add spinach, cover and cook over low heat for 15 min (if using fresh spinach wash, drain and chop first).  After 15 min. add sausage and mix thoroughly with vegetables.  Taste and add salt or pepper if desired.

Assemble roast:

Spread Hoisin (or other sauce) onto surface of the unrolled pork loin.  Next, spoon stuffing onto the loin.  Roll up loin like a jelly roll and set aside.  You'll probably have some stuffing left over and you can just eat it as it is or incorporate it into some other dish.

Now wrap the loin with bacon strips: Take 3 or 4 lengths of butcher twine long enough to wrap around the rolled loin and lay them out on a cutting board.  Place strips of bacon perpendicular to the direction of the twine.  Once you have about 5 to 6 strips of bacon laid out, place the rolled loin on top of the bacon.  Place additional strips of bacon on top of the loin.  Add additional strips of bacon so you have enough to cover the entire loin.  Start to tighten up the butcher twine so that the bacon is wrapped around the loin

Cook:
Inset a meat thermometer into the center of the roast and cook on a rack over a drip pan at 350oF till the internal temperature reaches 140 o to 145o F.  Remove from heat and let it rest till the internal temperature reaches 160 o F.
 

TheCub

Sounds great....I once cooked a pork loin in a similar manner, but stuffed it with pesto.....it was great.

boatbum

Ok, since Chicken - and the resulting pizza are on the list for Saturday  - this has to be Sunday.  Love this recipe - Mrs Boatbum will buy in when I tell her I am cooking a Spinach dish on the Egg.