Tuscan Pork Tenderloin & Roasted Potatoes

While I was doing the Jillian Michaels diet thing, I kind of fell out of the whole cooking mode. Then I tried a few new recipes, and had some friends over for Cinco de Mayo (still paying for all those margaritas, LOL), and when I was talking to my friend Julie Sellers, who loves to cook (and did a great cooking challenge in September), I decided to try a cooking challenge of my own--me and Julie, each trying some new and/or cool dishes in the coming month.

I had a copy of the annual collected recipes of Cooking Light magazine, and had a bunch of cool new ingredients I wanted to try, so I tried two new recipes today.

Yummy. That was pretty much the only word I spoke, LOL. Both were big hits! I improvised on a couple of ingredients, so this is what my version ended up being (rather than their original). I served these with roasted green beans.

Tuscan Pork Tenderloin


4 teaspoons olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
2 large shallots, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 pounds pork tenderloin (I divided mine into two one-pound portions)


Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Combine 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, the vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and shallots. Spread them along the roasting pan. (I drizzled in a little extra oil because it didn't seem to be enough).



Combine remaining oil, salt, rosemary, then add the lemon rind, lemon juice, fennel, pepper and garlic. Rub this mixture over the pork tenderloin, then arrange it in the pan on top of the shallot mixture. Roast at 500 degrees for 30 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 155 degrees. Let stand 10 minutes, then serve.


Roasted Garlic Mustard Potatoes


3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 clove garlic, minced
7 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 pounds small red potatoes, quartered
3 tablepoons minced scallion (or chives)
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, minced garlic and unpeeled cloves (these will be roasted and later used, so they go in the pan now), and potatoes. Toss well to coat, and put in a roasting pan. Roast for 1 hour, stirring at 30 minutes.


Remove potatoes from oven. Take out whole garlic cloves and press out the garlic pulp (I gripped the teeny end with my fingers and used tongs to squeeze them because they were hot. The pulp just slips out of the skin). Mix with all remaining ingredients, then toss potatoes in the mustard mixture. Serve :-)


I'm dying to see what Julie comes up with this week :-)


Shirley