This one surprised me...so good. Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with sun dried tomato, fontina and basil.

I found some ingredients in the fridge along with the pork that I thought would work well. Guess what. They did! You have to try this:

One pork tenderloin, butterflied and pounded evenly
one handful of fresh picked parsley, chopped fine
one sprig of fresh basil, about 6 leaves (still growing on my patio in January!) chopped
about 1/4 cup finely chopped fontina cheese
about 6 pieces sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, drained and chopped fine
1/2 cup panco or other bread crumb or to taste
1 tsp olive oil
1 Tsp creole mustard
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
about 1/4 tsp butter, room temp
salt and freshly ground pepper

Prepare the tenderloin by laying it white side down. Make a longitudinal cut not all the way through, opening up the meat as you go [about 1/2 the way through.] As you cut it, keep cutting the sides that you are opening in the same way until you have sort of a rectanglular cut. Cut cross striations aka, diamond like, until its roughly even thickness. Place a piece of saran wrap over the meat and pound with a mallet until even thickness throughout.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Rub the mustard evenly on the meat. Let rest 10 minutes. [This would be an excellent time to have a glass of wine!]

Stuffing Mix:
Combine tomato, parsley, basil, bread crumb and cheese in bowl. Add olive oil and mix by hand until incorporated. Add a touch of ground pepper. Let this stand for five minutes.

Cover the meat with the stuffing mix. Pat down the mixture onto the meat. Roll the meat lengthwise, like a jelly roll, making sure to wrap it tightly on each roll and tucking in the ends as you go.

Once you have the meat/mixture wrapped and into a vessel sprayed with no stick spray, rub the meat with the butter (this helps get a nice brown crust) and top with rosemary sprigs.

Cook for 12 minutes, 425 degrees. After, tune oven to 325 degrees and finish for another 15-25 minutes depending the size of the meat. I like mine just barely pink or 5 minutes longer if you like yours well done. You can always shoot for an internal temperature of 160 degrees, [AND I RECOMMEND THIS, A MEAT THERMOMETER IS VERY CHEAP] but I find that is too high and makes the meat dry for my taste.

The combination of cheese and olive oil infused sun dried tomatoes results in just an amazing juicy, tender and eye appeasing look on a white plate. The mustard comes in later in the taste which adds a nice bite.

I served this with roasted new potatoes and green beans with a rosemary butter sauce. (there's a version in the frozen section of vegs that's good too)

EAT, ENJOY!