Herb-Crusted Pork Loin -- Setting the Table for One, with Intention

Valentine's Day. I made myself an extravagant dinner: pan-seared salmon with a lemon caper butter, roasted asparagus, a small baguette from the bakery on Fifth Street, and a glass of white wine that I poured in my good crystal, not the everyday glass. I set the table properly. Cloth napkin. The good china. A candle. I ate alone and I found I did not mind at all.

There is a version of being alone on Valentine's Day that is about lack — what you don't have, who is not there. I spent several years in that version and it is a hard place to sit. There is another version, the one I have been learning, where being alone is simply the condition, and within that condition you can still choose to light a candle and use the good china and make yourself something worth eating. Marcus would have made me dinner on Valentine's Day. He would have cooked something he found in a magazine that he had never attempted before and it would have been either wonderful or a disaster and either way it would have been full of love. I set his chair at the table, the way I do sometimes when I cook something that was his kind of meal. The salmon was not particularly his kind of meal, so I didn't. But I thought about him.

Destiny and Travis went to a restaurant. CJ and Shanice cooked at home — Shanice made her grandmother's smothered oxtails, which CJ described to me in a phone call with the reverence of a man who has discovered something he did not know he needed. I asked him what they were like and he talked for five minutes without stopping. I asked Shanice for the recipe and she said she'd show me in person, which is the right answer. Some recipes don't travel. They have to be handed down in the kitchen, in real time, with the smell of the pot and the weight of the spoon in your hand.

I didn’t make this the night of Valentine’s Day — that night belonged to the salmon and the white wine and the candle burning down slow. But thinking about Shanice’s oxtails, and the way CJ couldn’t stop talking about them, reminded me that some meals carry weight. A few weekends later I roasted a pork loin with every herb I had on the counter, the kind of dinner that fills the whole apartment with a smell that makes you feel like you did something right. It’s the kind of recipe Marcus would have approved of — unfussy on the outside, careful underneath. I used the good china again.

Herb-Crusted Pork Loin

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 (3-pound) boneless pork loin roast
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
• 1 tablespoon fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat oven to 400°F. Let the pork loin sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before roasting so it cooks evenly.
2. Make the herb paste. In a small bowl, combine garlic, rosemary, thyme, parsley, Dijon mustard, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes (if using), and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Stir into a rough paste.
3. Sear the roast. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in an oven-safe skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Pat the pork loin dry with paper towels and sear on all sides until golden brown, about 3–4 minutes per side.
4. Apply herb crust. Remove the pan from heat. Spread the herb paste evenly over the top and sides of the seared pork loin, pressing gently so it adheres.
5. Roast. Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part reads 145°F, about 45–50 minutes depending on thickness.
6. Rest before slicing. Remove from oven and tent loosely with foil. Let rest 10 minutes before slicing — this keeps the juices in the meat where they belong.
7. Serve. Slice into 1/2-inch rounds and arrange on a platter. Spoon any pan juices over the top. Serve with roasted vegetables or mashed potatoes.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 2g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 390mg