Last night, I decided to go a little more contemporary in the kitchen and decided to cook, for the first time ever, a pork tenderloin. I don’t know why I’ve never prepared one before, but the current issue of “Cook’s Illustrated” had one of their “technical” features on broiling this cut of meat that captured my interest.

Because I don’t use my broiler that much, other than for browning certain dishes, I found the article most informative and, after reading it, I was motivated to try the accompanying recipe for broiling pork tenderloins.

The magazine’s broiling technique involves preheating the oven to 325° F and then setting it to broil to cook the meat. It also foregoes a broiler pan in favor of a disposable 3-inch deep aluminum roasting pan which, it claims, makes for deeper browning. This recipe really works, and even though there were a few missteps (my pan was a little shy of the called for 3 inch height; I discovered when I went to turn the meat that my broiler had not turned on) the roast nevertheless turned out perfectly cooked, browned, and juicy.

Another reason I chose to make this dish was the sun-dried tomato and basil salsa recipe suggested as an accompaniment. It complemented the buttery flavors of the pork perfectly with a sweet succulence.

I’ve chosen to give a link to the “Cook’s Illustrated” website, which has a video that demonstrates this cooking method, rather than providing the recipes here. My reason? This is an advertising-free publication that relies heavily on subscriptions to support it and I hope that at least some of my readers will opt either to purchase this issue (September-October 2014) or even take out a subscription to help keep this excellent publication around. Here’s the link: Cook’s Illustrated Broiled Pork Tenderloin Video

Wine Pairing: Garganega, Chardonnay, Dry Riesling