I’m quite sure it seems like David and I are incapable of eating meat without stuffing it with some other kind of deliciousness, but that isn’t true, we just… like trying new things, and this is the new “it thing” in our kitchen right now. For a while it was balsamic glazes, or random pasta dishes, or breakfast items, so now its large pieces of stuffed meat! We made this one last weekend when my aunt was here to have dinner, the same night we made these delicious twice baked potatoes… another stuffed delicacy! It turned out pretty well. The end result was a little salty for our taste. The recipe called for salt and peppering the meat but it was stuffed with artichoke hearts and sun dried tomatoes, both pretty salty foods, with the salty pork soooo… the additional seasoning was a bit much and the sun dried tomatoes we bought were in a jar in some kind of olive oil so that got all in the inside when it cooked off the tomatoes, which added to the saltiness, so just beware as you’re seasoning, and prepping!
Ingredients:
- 1 2lbs pork tenderloin;
- 1 egg;
- ½ medium onion, chopped;
- 6 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped;
- 2 large artichoke hearts, chopped;
- ½ tsp fresh sage, finely chopped;
- 1/8 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped;
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg;
- 2 cloves garlic, minced;
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste;
Instructions:
- In a medium skillet over a medium-high heat, saute the onion, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, sage, thyme, nutmeg and garlic in a few tablespoons of olive oil . You can also add the olive oil that the sun-dried tomatoes come in if your are using jarred sun-dried tomatoes. This oil, provided it’s only olive oil and not another vegetable seed oil, is healthy and full of delicious spices and flavor. Saute everything for about 3 to 4 minutes, just until the onions become slightly translucent and the tomatoes and artichokes begin to become tender. Remove the skillet from the heat and set aside for later use.
- Place the pork tenderloin in a 9×13 baking dish, rub some cooking fat all over and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. In order to stuff the loin, create a seam in the meat by cutting it down the center lengthwise, essentially, you want to be able to unfold the meat. Set the meat aside until the stuffing has been prepared.
- Preheat your oven to 450F.
- Turn your attention back to the stuffing. Once the ingredients from the skillet have completely cooled, whisk in an egg. The egg is essential to the stuffing, as this is what replaces the usual “breadcrumbs” and works to hold everything together. However, to make this work best, the sun-dried tomato/artichoke mixture must be cool, otherwise it will cook the egg before it is even stuffed in the meat and the egg will no longer act as a glue, since it cannot be cooked twice.Take the stuffing and begin spreading it across the seam of the meat. Avoid filling the meat too much, as you will not be able to fold the pork closed. Then roll the pork tenderloin and tie to close for baking
- Cook, uncovered, at 450 F for 15 minutes.Then, reduce the heat to 300 F and cook for another 30 minutes. Next, turn off the oven, but allow the meat to remain in it for at least 10 minutes.
Once the meat has cooled, cut into slices and serve! David did most of the cooking on this one, Were trying to get more comfortable with cooking large roasts in the oven, so that when we transition to the grill, we have some experience dealing with temperature control and cooking things all the way through, etc. This one probably cooked a lot faster than other options, because it is opened in the center so ya know, we had that going for us! But this one makes a pretty nice presentation, so all your friends will be impressed!
C P & B 
