Pork Loin

I had some leftover pesto but it was only basil hazelnut and garlic, there was no cheese in it. I was brainstorming on how to repurpose the pesto, and because of the lack of cheese I was thinking of going Asian with it. Basil with a nut made me think that a vaguely Thai dish would work. I was thinking of mixing the pesto with some rice noodles at first and maybe popping some pork I had in the freezer on top, but when I was at the store, I was persuaded by the fresh summer corn and zucchini, and some really tasty looking potatoes. I ended up mixing the pesto in with mashed potato, and topping it with a mixture of the pork, corn, and zucchini dressed with some sriracha and fish sauce. It all came out fantastic, summery, and bright, and somehow light yet hearty and filling.

Porchetta is normally eaten as a roast for a special occasion dinner, but when I was in Italy recently, we actually had it as a thin sliced sandwich meat. We got some porchetta, salami, and cheese for a train ride from Venice to Florence, and I was completely hooked on the porchetta. I happen to have a commercial meat slicer in my possession, so I thought it would be a fun theme for a party to make some different sliced meats for sandwiches. So here we are, lunchmeat week on TFimB! This porchetta tasted EXACTLY like the one I had in Italy which is pretty lucky because I just sort of winged the recipe. It was fairly easy to make and everyone loved it so I would consider it a big success!