A Savory and Sweet Stuffed Pork Loin

Growing up, I always remember my mother and grandmother creating a stuffings for a variety of vegetables, meats and chicken. Each mixture was unique and made whatever she was stuffing so tasty. Here we are stuffing a boneless pork loin with a mixture of spinach, onion, sweet raisins, toasted pine nuts, creamy feta cheese and a little bit of Italian bread crumb to bind the mixture. A artful combination of savory and sweet…..and so yummy delicious.

To start, I saute onion and spinach and then combine them with the toasted pine nuts, raisins, bread crumb, egg and feta cheese. If you don’t have feta cheese, you can use ricotta, asiago or provolone..it’s your preference

Next, I butterfly the pork loin to create a flat surface for the stuffing. First, I season the meat with salt, pepper and freshly chopped garlic.

The stuffed pork loin is placed in a shallow roasting pan, sprinkled with olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs de provence and white wine.. and surrounded by carrots, celery and chopped onion and roasted to perfection.

Recipe

• 4 lb pork loin roast
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 4 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 lbs fresh spinach leaves
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
• 4 oz crumbled feta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup italian seasoned bread crumbs
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 garlic clove chopped
• rosemary leaves for garnish
• vegetables for roasting (carrots, celery, onion)
• 1/2 cut white wine

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.. In a large skillet, add 2 tbsp. olive oil and saute chopped onion, add spinach and cook until softened. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Add raisins, pine nuts, feta cheese, egg and bread crumbs. Stir stuffing mixture to combine flavors.
2. Butterfly pork: Using a sharp knife, place roast on cutting board, fat side up, with short end toward you. Position knife 3/4” from bottom of roast; cut into 1” toward center of pork. Lift up top half of pork and continue making shallow horizontal cuts deeper into roast, unrolling top of pork as you cut and keeping knife parallel to cutting board to maintain the same thickness until pork unrolls to form a rectangle
3. Season inside of pork with salt and pepper and sprinkle chopped garlic. Spread stuffing all over pork leaving 1/4 inch on edges to prevent stuffing from oozing out. Roll up pork loin and tightly secure with kitchen twine.
4. Rub roast with olive oil, herbs de provence and insert rosemary springs into twine.
5. Place in a roasting pan and surround pork with cut onion, carrot and celery, sprinkle veggies and pork with olive oil and white wine and bake until internal temperature registers 155º, about 1 hour 25 minutes, basting with the pan juices.
6. Let roast rest 15 minutes before slicing and serve with natural juices. delicioso!!