Roasted Pork Loin with Apples and Cinnamon

By Paul Briand

This recipe came from a visit my wife Jane made to New York state for a girls' weekend with her three daughters. One of the daughters, Reilly, is a student at Ithaca College, so Jane, daughter Kelsey and daughter Eileen made arrangements to travel to Ithaca for a weekend of touring wineries and sightseeing and visiting.

Jane picked up a little brochure with information about apples, in particular apples native to New York state, such as the Empire and Cortland.

The brochure contained information about various apples and various recipes that use apples, including one for Roasted Pork Loin with Apples and Cinnamon.

I made the recipe recently for a big family Sunday dinner and it was a big hit with only a moderate amount of preparation involved.

The idea here is to create a rub for the pork using olive oil, pepper, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Also, the recipe called for two apples, I used three. And, since we couldn't find a 2-pound pork loin, we bought two loins of about a pound each.

Ingredients
2 pounds boneless pork loin
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger, divided
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, divided
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 Cortland apples, cored, peeled and sliced into wedges

Directions
1. Rub pork loins with a mixture of the olive oil, pepper and a 1/2 teaspoon each of the ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon;
2. Roast pork in a shallow pan in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour, until the interior of the meat reads at least 155 degrees;
3. While the pork is roasting, mix together in a small bowl the rest of the ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon along with the wine, honey and lemon juice;
4. Place mixture in a medium sauce pan and add apples, then simmer until the apples break down into the sauce;
5. When the pork is done, let sit for 10 minutes before slicing and add pork roast juices to the mixture in the sauce pan;
6. Serve sliced pork topped with the apple sauce.