Roast Pork with Pears and Caramelized Onions

in Caramelized Onions, Pears, Pork

Roast Pork with Pears and Caramelized Onions

My name is Shawnda and I’m a recovering cooking magazine junkie.

I used to love cooking magazines. I had a monthly routine: I would gather all my new magazines and a sticky note pad and head for the couch, very hopeful about finding something new for next week’s dinner. Flip, flip, flip. Page by page. Magazine after magazine.

The clutter began to accumulate so I made a vow to cut back. Plus, it was silly to justify spending money on subscription renewals when I wasn’t enjoying the current subscription. Several of the magazines made it easy for me: I found myself less and less inspired each month, getting all the way through some mags without finding a single recipe that I wanted to make.

Some even post their recipes for free online. What once seemed like an impossible choice started to become really easy. I think I’m down to one subscription now (and it was a free one courtesy of spending too much money at Sur La Table).

One thing I do still look forward to in the mail is the Williams-Sonoma catalog. The Roast Pork with Pears and Onions on the current cover drew me in before I’d even returned from the mailbox. I’ve only had it for two weeks and it already shows signs of being a cherished issue – wrinkled, creased, water-marked, and even stained from being used as a spoon rest. We’ve made the breakfast tart, frittata, and now we’ve made the Roast Pork with Pears. Twice.

A great recipe from a free source! The bonus, my husband really liked it 🙂 The pork was easy and contained plenty of one of our favorite herbs, fresh sage.

Roast Pork with Pears and Caramelized Onions

An excellent fall dinner: pork loin roasted with sage, pears, and onions

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • 1/4 cup packed fresh sage leaves, plus additional leaves for roasting
  • 3 whole garlic cloves, plus 2 cloves, minced
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
  • 5 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 boneless pork loin roast, about 3 1/2 lb
  • 3 ripe red Anjou pears, halved lengthwise
  • 1/2 large yellow onion, cut into 1/2-inch thick rounds (keep the rounds intact)

Instructions

  1. Position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 400F.
  2. In a mini food processor, process the parsley, sage, whole garlic, salt, pepper and 3 Tbs. of the olive oil until you get to a pesto-like consistency. Using a sharp knife, cut the boneless pork roast in half horizontally but do not go all the way through to the cutting board. Leave the last 1/4-1/2 inch in tact (this will make handling much easier).
  3. Spread the sage mixture on one cut side of the pork loin, then place the other half on top. Tie the pork loin together with kitchen twine and tuck whole sage leaves underneath the twine. Season the roast with salt and pepper.
  4. In a 5 1/2-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat, warm the remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil. Add the pears, cut side down, and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add the pork to the pot and sear on all sides, rotating after about 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Place the onion rounds (still intact), in the pot in a single layer. Set the pork on top and place the pears along the sides of the pot.
  5. Roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the pork registers 155, 45 to 55 minutes. Transfer the pork to a carving board, cover loosely with aluminum foil and let rest for 10 minutes before carving. Transfer the onions and pears to a platter.

Notes

Yields: 8 servings

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma

Estimated time: 1 hour 30 minutes

26 comments… add one
  • Jennifer

    I have a thing with all my cooking magazines that I refuse to give up, hahaa!!!

    I love the dinner, beautiful!!

  • I love cooking magazines too, haha 😀

  • I completely understand on the recovering cooking magazine addiction… I’m currently letting all my subscriptions expire because I’m lucky if I find one thing in any of them that I actually want to make anymore! Not worth the money when I find more inspiration for free on blogs!

  • The flavors in this all are wonderfully paired. I, too, am a cooking mag junkie. I have to be careful because it can easily get out of control!

  • I used to collect cooking magazines, and then stoped and realized how much money I saved and used that money to go shopping at Williams Sonoma! Not much savings there! But I do have an awfuly huge pile of recipes to try and I just added yours to it.

  • Ooh – I’ve been wanting to try this recipe! Glad to know it’s a good one! 🙂

  • The only mag I regularly get (and pay for myself) is Martha Stewart Living. Oh how I heart that magazine – and I do in fact collect back issues. I try to justify it by calling them “art.” Not sure anyone sees them that way but me!

    What a gorgeous dish – the pears are to die for. I’ve put the breakfast tart in my own meal plans – might have to try this pork dish, too!

  • I love the Williams Sonoma catalog for the same reason! And because I registered with them for the wedding, I got an entire box set of recipes – which are fantastic!

  • I’m the exact same way! I don’t subscribe to any magazines anymore but will go to the store and give in to temptation and purchase a few 🙂 And this dish looks amazing!

  • The Liquor Control Board of Ontario puts out one of the best free food magazines I’ve ever seen. And as a bonus, you get wine pairings. It’s great!

  • I am totally with you on the magazine subscriptions! How funny. The only one I get now is the new Food Network magazine and it is great. I actually made something out of the first issue. This dish looks terrific and your photography is great too.

  • One of my recent blog posts was from a williams sonoma catalogue! I too am a magazine junkie and have also started to try to not renew all of them… too many recipes not enough time to cook! Williams Sonoma always seems to have a few recipes/ ideas worth trying.

  • This looks like it could be spectacular to serve when the family comes to dinner!

    I’ve let almost all my magazine subscriptions go too. There’s so much blog inspiration that I’ll never get around to making, so why pay for even more???

  • Peggasus

    Hey! How come I don’t get the WS catalogue anymore? Is it because I haven’t purchased anything from them in two years? I still get a hundred Pottery Barn ones, and I haven’t gotten anything from them in even a longer time. Hmmmph!

    (The only one I still get is Cook’s Illustrated, and I don’t think I’ll renew that when it’s up. This looks delicious, I think I’ll make it this weekend!)

  • I look forward to the WS catalog too! Isn’t it funny how they’ve managed to put out a catalog that feels more like a cooking magazine than, well, a catalog?

    Your photos are gorgeous!

  • Hi there-my jaw dropped reading your article because I have made the same recipes form their most recent catalog. So funny that I was not smart enough to even post them—then again, I am also the nut who has misplaced the Williams-Sonoma gift card hubby gave me for Christmas. Shhh….

  • I LOVE Williams-Sonoma recipes. I regularly go to their website when I am looking for a classic, guaranteed-delicious recipe! (It sounds like I work for them!)

  • Meandnooneelse

    I too am down to one subscription a month and for the same reasons as you!! I will try this recipe this Sunday lunch, looks just the sort me and mine like.

  • Chilispice

    If this is where we’re starting the anonymous group of cooking mag junkies, I’m in! I’m also recovering. I moved for a start, and so I cancelled any subscriptions soon ending. I am not buying new ones. I figured out the library had many of the ones I love to borrow so I can at least jot down what I’ll be looking up online and importing into my cookbook software. Now…if I can just pare down my existing cookbook collection. To my own credit, I haven’t bought a new cookbook in 3 months! It’s a start. LOVE the blog!!!

  • Keesha aka PrissyCook

    When you’re finished with a bundle of magazines (especially good thick glossy ones) pack them and donate them if you can bear parting with them. Reduce! Reuse! Yay!

  • Siobhan

    The William-Sonoma recipe is wonderful. The first time I made it I followed the ingredients exactly. The second time around, I didn’t have any leeks or pears so I substituted onions and apples. The result was just as wonderful although a bit more traditional than the sophisticated taste of pears and leeks. Both are great. I share your addiction to food mags as well. I have half of my attic holding 43 years of Gourmet Magzines! Now all know my dirty little secret!

  • I heart the W-S catalog for the same reason–I just received my latest copy and tore out the recipe for Black Pepper and Mustard Braised Short Ribs! They are always supper delicious recipes in their catalogs!

    I am a cooking mag junkie too–i just actually let Gourmet expire and picked up Cooking Light instead. I was uninspired by Gourmet last year…it was time to go.

  • elissa monroe

    I too do the exact same thing… still to this day, going through my cooking magazines page by page, using post-it notes to mark possible delights. I do still do this, however I find so many good recipes online. Two of my favorites are Food TV, and Martha Stewart. I plan on starting a blog discussing my finds!!!

  • I just found this on foodgawker through their “randomize” feature, and even though it is a fairly “old” post, I had to pop up and say that it looks just divine and that I will be making it as soon as I find good pears!

Leave a Comment

Cancel