Garlic & Herb Roast Pork Roulade

Garlic & Herb Roast Pork Roulade with roasted acorn squash and cheddar-herb drop biscuits

I am not good at roasts.  Probably because I almost never cook them.  There is something slightly daunting about large roasts at the grocery store or butcher shop.  Big, cumbersome cuts of meat--the tough ones requiring long, slow braises (lest you end up with chewy, gristle-y meat), the tender ones needing a delicate touch and precise cooking to preserve their texture and avoid cooking them into oblivion.  

You know, all of what I typed up there could be totally wrong, excuses I've concocted in my head because - and I'm admitting it now - I'm scared of roasts!  I never cook them, and it's such a large piece of meat to make a mistake on.  A little pasta goes awry, you can throw it out and not lose more than a few cents in the process.  But a 3 pound hunk of meat?  You get that wrong, and you're eating it anyway.

Ingredients for the herb paste

To help conquer this fear, I started easy: Pork Loin.  I knew it would be tender, unlike the beefy pot roasts which need to be cooked long and slow to render the fat and dissolve the connective tissues, leaving the meat fork-tender and oh-so-flavorful, having been basted in fat and broth for hours.  Instead of a beef tenderloin, which can go from rare to overcooked in mere minutes, I knew pork just had to be cooked through, and my fancy instant-read meat thermometer could help me there.  

And, I had been inspired by a technique featured in a promotional Cook's Country magazine I got in the mail the other day.  Instead of flavoring the meat from the outside, a la spice rubs or marinating, go the other route and flavor from the inside.  FROM THE INSIDE!!!! OK, I'll stop.  AND I got to try a nifty new technique--butterflying the roast!  Most people would not be excited by this...but, people, my pleasures are different than most.  

Basically, it's easy enough.  To butterfly the roast (more detailed instructions are in the recipe), you make a long horizontal cut about 1/3 of the way up the roast, and almost through the roast, then open it like a book.  You do this again on the thicker side, and open the whole thing up flat.  You can flavor this big exposed surface, then roll it all up again and truss it back into roast formation.

All trussed up, and nowhere to go.

I ended up doing this step a day or so in advance, just cause I didn't know when I was going to cook it.  This really amped up the flavor party-- the smell of garlic when I unwrapped the roast yesterday was incredibly enticing, and the herby mustard flavors had permeated the meat. 

Perhaps, erring on the side of caution (and favoring a undercooked chicken/pork-phobic husband - a well deserved phobia), I may have cooked this bad boy about 10 minutes too long--it was a little drier than it deserved.  But flavor?  In spades.  And, truthfully, not too difficult at all to learn a new technique that, I'm sure, will come in very handy in the future.  

My favorite thing about the finished product is that it just felt so homey, so comforting, like the long lost tradition of the Sunday Dinner.  I served it with simple roasted acorn squash wedges and cheddar-herb biscuits (echoing the herbs in the pork) and it was a meal to remember - sharing a special moment and feeding life with ones you love.  Just as they all should be. 

Garlic & Herb Roast Pork Roulade
Adapted from Cook's Country magazine


1 2-3 pound pork loin roast
2 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 large cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp minced rosemary
3 Tbsp fresh parsley, minced
1 tsp fresh sage, minced
twine
salt & pepper


1. Make herb paste.  Finely mince garlic and herbs together.  Stir into olive oil and mustard and mix well until a chunky paste forms.


2.  Butterfly the pork loin.  (To make this step easier, freeze the whole pork loin for 30 minutes before proceeding.)  Place the roast on a cutting board. Using a long, thin knife (like a boning knife--thanks Aunt L and Uncle B!), make a long, horizontal cut about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the roast.  Cut almost through the roast, stopping about 1/2 inch from the edge.  Open the roast like a book.  Starting inside the cut on the thicker side, once again make a long, horizontal cut out from the middle toward the outside edge, cutting the thicker side in half and stopping 1/2 inch from the edge.  Open this new cut like a book.  You now should have a long, relatively flat slab of meat.


3.  Assemble roast.  Spread herb paste on cut side of pork roast.starting at a short end, tightly roll the loin back up into a log, then place seam side-down on the cutting board.  Use butcher's twine to "truss" the roast, one of two ways: 1) Cut several lengths of twine long enough to encircle roast.  Tie the roast, fairly tightly, at 1-inch intervals, using a surgeons' knot for security.  2) A "Running Truss." Cut one long piece of twine.  Encircle roast 1" from end and tie, using said surgeons' knot, leaving one long end.  Now use long piece of twine to loop around the roast, passing string underneath itself to secure the loop, and tightening about 1" from first loop.  Repeat running the length of the roast. Or, watch this video from The Swinery.  It shows you how to do this much better than my half-assed explanation.)


4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Place roast on a small rack or directly in a roasting pan.  Season outside of roast with S&P.  Roast for 40-50 minutes or until interior reaches about 145 degrees (it will continue to come up in temperature as it rests).  Tent with foil and allow roast to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.  To serve, remove twine from roast, then slice into 1/2" thick slices.