I give a garlic-ginger coating to the portion of the pork I’m going to roast. It should be applied at least an hour before roasting, but I usually do it in the morning of the day I’m going to roast the tenderloin. This is particularly good with some roasted vegetables surrounding the pork—halved small new potatoes, a root vegetable such as a white turnip cut in half, a few slices of celery root, a split parsnip, or some chunks of winter squash. Rub them in light olive oil first, salt lightly, then scatter in a small roasting pan around the pork. If they aren’t quite done when the pork is, turn up the heat and give them another 5 minutes or so while the meat is resting.

　　

Ingredients

1 fat garlic clove, peeled

　　1 teaspoon kosher salt

　　1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

　　1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

　　1 pork tenderloin, trimmed as described on page 39

　　Freshly ground pepper

　　A handful of the vegetables suggested above

　　

Step 1

Chop the garlic clove fine, then sprinkle on the salt and mash with the flat of your big knife. Smear the mustard, the mashed garlic, and the ginger over both sides of the pork, and pepper generously. Refrigerate until you are ready to roast.

　　

Step 2

Preheat the oven to 375° and place the little tenderloin in the middle of a roasting pan, with whatever vegetables you are roasting scattered around it. Roast for 30 minutes, then remove the meat and let rest for 5 or 10 minutes, while you finish the vegetables. Make a handsome plate of slices of pork with the veggies all around.

　　The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones. Copyright © 2009 by Judith Jones. Published by Knopf. All Rights Reserved.Judith Jones is senior editor and vice president at Alfred A. Knopf. She is the author of The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food and the coauthor with Evan Jones (her late husband) of three books: The Book of Bread; Knead It, Punch It, Bake It!; and The Book of New New England Cookery. She also collaborated with Angus Cameron on The L. L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook, and has contributed to Vogue, Saveur, and Gourmet magazines. In 2006, she was awarded the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in New York City and Vermont.