Instead of Sausage

I make sausage. But more about that another time. Today is about what happened when my Personal Shopper (and I love him very much) brought home the wrong kind of pork for sausage and I was left, having hauled out my sausage making supplies, holding a lean sirloin roast (all wrong for luscious, fatty sausage) that wanted me to "USE OR FREEZE BY" . . . that very day. I don't know about you, but there are times when I hesitate to freeze because I know my tendency is to let the deep freeze act as a food cemetery. "Good-bye, food that I don't know what to do with but don't want to waste, go away!" I call as I bury it in the icy depths, knowing full well I may exhume it, unrecognizable and inedible, some years down the road. It is so very convenient.

But change is in the wind, because this time, at 4 in the evening, with children at my ankles clamoring for animal crackers, I looked up a way to use this gorgeous, lean roast. And had it on the table by suppertime.

I doled out a few animal crackers in the interim.

Roast Pork Loin
Paraphrased from Roasting, by Barbara Kafka
Barbara Kafka's cookbooks are, in my opinion, not to be missed. They are cooking classes in book form, and every recipe works. In Roasting, she puts forth in encyclopedic form how to roast nearly every food--at high heat. The results are not only fast but arguably more moist and succulent. The One Rule with high-heat roasting, she says, is that the meat must be at room temperature when it goes in the oven. I repeat: The meat must be at room temperature when it goes in the oven.

The recipe below is simple, straightforward, and so good I don't know any pork lover who would complain about eating this once a week. Its main flavoring agent is garlic, in a subtly sweet, cooked form. If you happen to cook for anyone who likes the flavor of garlic but not the smell of garlic cooking (these people are out there), this recipe is for them. The raw garlic slivers get tucked into slits in the pork -- which sounds fussy, but if you set at it you will find it is soon finished -- and are never caught whiff of again, until you taste it infusing the pork you just put in your mouth.

If you like, you can throw peeled and quartered small potatoes, sprinkled with salt, pepper, and olive oil, into the roasting pan 10 minutes into the cooking time. Turn them every 15 minutes, advises Kafka, and they will be done at the same time as the pork. She is right.

1 (2-1/2 to 3-1/2 lb.) pork loin, about 8" across and 4" high, rolled and tied; set out at room temperature for 30 minutes
4 cloves garlic, smashed, peeled, and cut into slivers
Kosher salt
Pepper
Olive oil

Place oven rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Allow roast to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. (Do not skip this step or you will be very disappointed in the results.) Without cutting the ties, make 1" slits all over pork with a small knife. Tuck slivers of garlic inside. Salt and pepper roast liberally. Place prepared roast in a roasting pan just large enough to fit it, add a little water, broth, or olive oil just to coat the pan, and place in oven. Roast 45-50 minutes, or until pork reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees F. The inside of the pork will be moist and just slightly pink. Do not overcook, or roast will become dry.