Roast Pork: Greek Style

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It's no secret that I love a good pork roast. The fat. The meat. The flavor.

Recently, I reposted a post from my trip to Paris in 2010. It covered my feeling towards my first (and only) Parisian-style Greek sandwich. It was great. Check out the picture of it (and me) here.

I decided to make a roast that would mimic the flavors of the meat in the Greek sandwich, while still being not too much work. The recipes I found all involved cutting the raw meat into thin slices, marinating them and then quickly panfrying or grilling them. I didn't want to take the time, nor did I have any interest in cutting up raw meat.

My method uses all the same spices, but with way less effort. I simply marinated the whole pork roast in a mix of herbs, spices and vinegar. The end result tasted very close to the real thing, though I know if I'd taken the time to actually slice up the meat and marinate thin slices, they would absorb even more of the great flavor.

I ended up making a Greek Sandwich Salad (read: no bread, but all the other great stuff that was in the original sandwich) with the cooked roast. Using my handy electric knife, I was able to slice the pieces nice and thin, which let the with plenty of delicious pork roast for the week to come.

Greek Spiced Roast Pork

Ingredients:

  • 2 pound pork loin roast
  • 2 tablespoons crushed oregano
  • 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
  • 1/4 cup cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 teaspoons black pepper

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. In a bowl large enough to hold the roast, mix together all the spices and cider vinegar.
  3. Put the roast in the bowl with the spice mixture, turning to coat all sides.
  4. Leave in the marinade for at least thirty minutes and up to overnight. If you are doing a longer marinade time, cover and refrigerate the bowl.
  5. Once the roast is marinated, remove it from the bowl and place on a rack on top of a roasting pan.
  6. Roast for 20 minutes then lower the temperature to 375 degrees and roast for an additional 30 minutes.
  7. Remove from the oven and let sit for ten minutes before slicing.
  8. Slice thinly (I love to use an electric knife here) and serve!