This dish sounds complicated, but it really is not difficult to make. Pork loin wrapped in pancetta and stuffed with fig jam. Doesn’t this sound yummy? Pork loin, pancetta and fig jam! It sounds pretty decadent and Italian, doesn’t it?! I made this meal earlier this year in the fall when my friends Kevin and Cathy swung by the house while they were touring around Italy. I wanted a meal that was quick to prepare and let me spend more time with my guests than in the kitchen. The recipe was great because i could make it ahead of time and it roasted while we talked. This turned out so well that (shhhh….I don’t want to ruin the surprise) this is what I am going to be serving this year for New Year’s Eve dinner.
Italians eat a lot of pork. The butcher shop at the local grocery store in Italy does beautiful pork. They are super nice and they butterflied the pork loin for me without even blinking (if you have a butcher you regularly go to, they will also butterfly it for you, just ask). While butterflying the pork loin sounds difficult, it’s not that hard to do. Here is a video if you don’t have a butcher to butterfly for you, or if you want to do it yourself.
Under the theory that bacon makes everything better, topping the pork loin with pancetta adds another layer of flavour as well as some fat to your meat so it stays nice and moist. The fig jam was something I preserved in the summer (recipe to follow on future post), but you can just as easily buy fig jam at most stores.
[Side note: Peter and I were recently in London celebrating his birthday and we made this again at my friend Mowbray’s flat. I managed to roll the pork loin much tighter, so I have included those photos.]
Prep time: 5 minutes; Cook time: 90 – 100 minutes + 15 minute resting time; Serves: 8 – 12 +++
What you need:
- 5lb pork loin roast, butterflied (ask the butcher to do this for you)
- 1 cup fig jam
- 120g sliced pancetta
- olive oil
- salt, pepper
- cooking string
- water (this is to prevent your pan from burning while cooking)
What you do:
- Take Saran Wrap and lay out (you will probably need 2 sheets) lengthwise on your counter top
- Cut 3 – 4 long pieces of cooking string, lay across the Saran Wrap roughly the same size as your butterflied pork loin
- Lay the sliced pancetta on the Saran Wrap across the string roughly the size of the roast when folded
- Pat your pork loin dry, brush the outside with olive oil and season with salt and pepper
- Place on top of the pancetta making sure that the string is in place
- Season the inside of the butterflied pork with salt and pepper
- Spread the fig jam on the inside of the pork
- Roll the butterflied pork loin back together (I did a poor job the first time I did this)
- Tie the string fairly tightly to hold the pork loin together
- Roll the pork up in the Saran Wrap tucking in the end pancetta pieces, to form a pack, place in the fridge. Refrigerate until 1/2 hour before you want to start cooking
- (Note: you can go straight to roasting instead of refrigerating the pork – wrapping it up in Saran and refrigerating for a while helps keep everything together)
- Preheat oven to 400ºF, take the pork out at least 1/2 hour before you start to cook it. [ELIN’s TIP – always cook meat from room temperature.]
- Remove Saran and place pork on a rack on top of your roasting pan
- Add approximately 2 1/2 cups of water to the bottom of the pan (this is because the fig jam will drip out and without water, it will burn on the bottom of the pan)
- Place in oven, check the roast every so often to make sure that the bottom of the pan is not dry, add water if necessary to prevent the bottom of the pan from burning
- Cook approximately 90 – 100 minutes until internal temperature measures 145ºF
- Remove from oven, place on a cutting board and tent with aluminum foil and let rest for approximately 15 minutes
- Remove foil, slice (remove string) and serve
Travel*Food*Cool will be off for the holidays and will be returning Monday, January 9, 2017. We would like to wish everyone
and a wonderful 2017!
