Prosciutto-wrapped pork loin roast

Sometimes a meal comes together just perfectly and that's what happened with this dinner that started with a smallish (2 lb) pork loin roast that we got from the Blue Rooster Farm stand at our farmer's market on Saturday. I found this nice recipe in Molly Stevens' Roasting. It actually is "with rhubarb and sage" but she notes that when rhubarb is not in season (which is most of the time) you can substitute plums or apples. The latter, of course, always go great with pork. I had a vague memory that Julia Childs has a recipe for creamed Brussels sprouts and thought that would be a great accompaniment.

The pork recipe is very easy. With the mortar and pestle, you make a paste of garlic, chopped sage, orange zest, salt and black peppercorns then stir in 2 Tbl olive oil. Spread this over the pork; you can do this ahead of time but since I had to let the roast thaw out I didn't have time for this. Then drape 3 or 4 thin slices of prosciutto over the roast, tucking the ends underneath. Drizzle with olive oil and pop in a 325-degree oven. After 45 min., spread the apples (or rhubarb) -- peeled, trimmed and cut into 1/2-in. pieces, tossed with brown sugar, a little more minced sage, optional ground pink peppercorns (I had some so I used them), a pinch of salt, and 1 more Tbl olive oil -- into the roasting pan with the pork. Roast another half hour more or less until a temperature of 140 to 145. Let it sit for 10 or 15 min before slicing. The pork was tender, moist, delicious and had an extra little zing from the orange zest. The apples were great with it.

Julia actually has a couple of recipe for creamed Brussels sprouts -- one where you leave them whole and bake them in the oven that she says is good with fowl and the other where you chop them and simmer them in cream on top of the stove, which she decided in her wisdom was preferable with veal and pork. So of course that's the one I used. I blanched 1-1/2 lbs of trimmed sprouts for just 5 min (Julia uses a lot of water and salt for blanching and I can't argue with the result. Drain, cool, roughly chop, then melt butter (needless to say she uses lots, so I cut it back a bit) in the skillet, shake the chopped sprouts around, add 1/2 c. heavy cream and simmer 8 to 10 min. Finish with a little more butter and chopped parsley. The Brussels sprouts were heavenly. They were organic sprouts from WF -- the only ones they had and I got the last two 12-oz. packages -- and turned out to be terrific.

As part of an effort to use up some of our accumulated vinegars and new olive oils I did fix up a quick salad, even though we usually skip that for weekday meals. All in all, it was real feast for a weekday and plenty of leftovers.