Passport to France at Central Market

Mais oui!!! Of course I have to write something about Central Market's Passport to France! J'adore la cuisine francaise!! So imagine my excitement when I stopped in to buy things for dinner and saw my Central Market all decked out like France! I nearly wept with joy. I wish I had bypassed the $500 waste of money I spent on the failure that was the Austin Food & Wine Fest and saved the cash to splurge on all things French for sale at CM for the next two weeks. I'm still boiling about the complete disappointment that was the Austin Food & Wine Fest. What an expensive, dusty, disorganized waste of time and money that was. But I digress...

Here are a few picture I snapped with my little old iphone

Beautiful little radishes and beans (the photo is a little fuzzy, I was shaking with excitement here).

A cute little marche setup with Le Creuset wares for sale

I picked up an Herbes de Provence pork tenderloin and roasted it in my rotisserie with a nice little pan sauce and rosemary roasted potatoes. It was fabulous. I didn't take pictures sadly.

I may be partial, but I still think Lay's taste better.

Aside from ravioli, crepes may be my second favorite food. It was a tradition that on snow days my mother would make me fresh crepes with Nutella and bananas. This nice man made me a crepe with cream cheese, figs and candied ginger. It was terrific.

I'm so lucky to live in a city that has such fantastic grocery stores and I'm even more excited because Whole Foods is opening less than a mile from my house, so I can ride my bike with my cute little basket to pick up my groceries from now on. Very French, non?

Roasted Pancetta and Patate Arrosto

My gorgeous and smart friend Michelle suggested we attend a Tuscan cooking class at our local Central Market taught by renowned chef Gina Stipo and of course I had to make this dish as soon as possible. We were also served an insanely delicious chesnut soup and calamari braised in marinara, which I will soon cook and post here.

But really, what's not to love about pork cooked in BACON?? Since uncured pancetta is impossible to find here in austin, I substituted uncured Applegate Farms Sunday Bacon. My husband devoured half of the 2 pound roast if that tells you anything...

Ingredients

Raw pancetta or 1 package uncured bacon (I use Applegate Farms or Niman Ranch)

1 pork loin

fresh rosemary from two sprigs

4 leaves fresh sage

1 tsp ground fennel seeds, or fennel pollen

3 garlic cloves

salt to taste

2 cups dry white wine

Directions

In a food processor, make a paste of 1 tbs olive oil, sage, fennel, rosemary and garlic.

Salt both sides of pork loin and rub paste on top of the loin. Layer the loin with bacon strips and tie it with string to secure.

Place in a roasting pan and add about 2 cups of white wine to generously coat the bottom. Place it in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for about an hour until the middle reads 150 degrees. Let it rest 15 minutes before thinly slicing. Reduce pan juices on stove top with a bit more wine, strain fat and drizzle. garnish with parsley and serve with Roasted potatoes (Patate Arrosto).

Patate Arrosto

4 large Yukon potatoes peeled and cut into large chunks about an inch cubed.

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tbs chopped fresh rosemary

1 tbs chopped fresh sage

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tsp sea salt

Mix ingredients together and line in a large baking dish and cook along side the pork about 45 minutes to one hour so they are golden brown and cooked through. Finish with a little more salt if needed.

Fantastico!!!!!!