Orange-Rosemary Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Potatoes and Citrus-Balsamic Reduction

I love how non-intimidating and consistently moist and tender pork tenderloin is. Also it can be cooked pretty quickly due to its petite size. No wonder I make it all the time!


The recipe I am sharing with you today is simple enough to make for a weeknight dinner, but it has flavors that are elegant enough to impress dinner guests. 


I marinate the pork tenderloin with orange juice, garlic, herbs, etc for as long as I can - some days for 8 hours, some days for 20 minutes! Although I recommend marinating it for several hours to obtain optimal results, the pork will be cooked in its own marinate so you will end up with a flavorful piece of meat no matter what. 

The potatoes are to die for. They are cooked in the same baking dish as the pork so they absorb all those yummy flavors.  Finally, the orange-balsamic reduction (sounds fancy but it can be made in 20 minutes!) is the perfect compliment to the tenderloin!


Orange-Rosemary Pork Tenderloin with Orange-Balsamic Reduction


Pork
1 pork tenderloin, approximately 1.5 pounds


Marinate
Juice from 1 orange
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
2 fresh rosemary springs, whole


Potatoes
5 medium to large Yukon potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces
1 tablespoon of fresh Italian flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
few pinches of salt
olive oil to drizzle


Orange-Balsamic Reduction
1 cups of Balsamic vinegar
zest from 1/2 orange


Preparation

Orange-Balsamic Reduction
Place the balsamic vinegar into a small heavy bottomed sauce pan and bring it to a simmer over medium-low heat until it has reduced by half and it has a light syrup consistency, about 25 minutes (keep in mind that the reduction continues to thicken as it cools). Turn off the heat, add the orange zest, stir it around and set aside. 


Pork and Potatoes
1- whisk all the marinate ingredients together, except for the rosemary.


2- place the pork inside a large Ziploc bag (the ones that zip closed)


3- pour the marinate inside the Ziploc. Add the rosemary. Close the Ziploc. Move the bag around to ensure that the pork is all covered with the marinate.


4- if you have time, allow the pork to marinate inside the refrigerator for 1 to 8 hours. In case you don't have much time, allow it to marinate for at least 20-40 minutes over the kitchen counter.


5- if your pork was marinating inside the refrigerator, bring it to the kitchen counter about 40 minutes before cooking (you don't want the pork to be too cold when you place it in the oven).


6- Preheat the oven to 400F


7- Peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces (I cut large potatoes into 6 pieces, and small ones into 4 pieces)


8- Place pork and all the marinate in the center of a roasting pan or baking dish (the roasting dish should not be too big. See the picture bellow). 


9- Add the potatoes all around the pork; sprinkle the potatoes lightly with salt and drizzle them with a little olive oil.


10- Bring it to the preheated oven (uncovered) and cook for approximately 1 hour, or until the internal temperature of the pork reaches at least 145F (I cook mine until it reaches 165F-170F).


11- Remove the pork from the roasting dish, set it aside and cover loosely with foil. My potatoes were not completely cooked at that time, so I put them back into the oven, changed the oven temperature to 450F and continued to cook them for approximately 15 minutes or until they were fork tender and golden brown. When potatoes are ready add the parsley.


13- Slice the pork, plate it, drizzle it with the balsamic reduction. Serve it with the potatoes.

Visualize:

Orange-Balsamic Reduction

Over a simmer reduce the balsamic vinegar by half or until it reaches a light syrup consistency

Zest 1/2 of an orange

And add it to the reduction

Marinating the pork

Juice 1 orange

To the orange add olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper

Place pork inside a large Ziploc bag, add marinate and rosemary springs. Close Ziploc. Marinate from 20 minutes to 8 eight hours depending on how much time you have!

Peel and cut potatoes

Place pork AND marinate in a roasting dish

Add potatoes

Sprinkle the potatoes lightly with salt

Drizzle with a little olive oil

Cook for approximately 1 hour on a 400F oven. Internal temperature of the pork has to be at least 145F. I cook mine to 165F.

Remove pork and cover it loosely with aluminium foil. My potatoes were still not cooked through so I put them back into the oven, raised oven temp. to 450F and cooked them for another 15 minutes until they were golden brown and fork tender.

After potatoes are all cooked through I add the parsley and stir it around gently.

Drizzle balsamic reduction on the plate, place slices of pork over it. Drizzle por with very good olive oil and some freshly ground black pepper. Serve with the potatoes.

The potatoes cooked over the pork marinate so they taste phenomenal!!

The perfect bite!