Wild Mushroom-Stuffed Pork Roast

Another of my checkout counter cookbook recipes. My changes to the recipe and hints are in red.

Prep Time: 25 min Start to Finish: 1 Hour 30 min

Ingredients:

• 1 package (1 oz) dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 boneless pork loin roast (3 lbs)
• 1 TBsp butter or margarine
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped (1/2 cup)
• 1 package (8 oz) fresh baby portabella mushrooms, finely chopped (most stores have them packaged and labeled as "crimini mushrooms")
• 1/2 cup herb-seasoned stuffing crumbs (do not use stuffing cubes)
• 2 TBsp olive or vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• Fresh sage leaves, if desired. I bought the sage, but then forgot to use it, so I can't tell you if it enhanced the recipe...I am sure it would.

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375F. In small bowl, place dried porcini mushrooms. Cover mushrooms with hot water; let stand 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, cut pork roast horizontally to 1/2 inch from one long side without cutting all the way through (pork will open like a book); set aside. In 10-inch skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook and stir about 1 minute or until tender.
3. Drain porcini mushrooms well; chop. I found them hard to chop so I pulsed them in my food processor, that worked much better. Add porcini and portabells (crimini) mushromms to onions in skillet; cook aobut 4 minutes, stirring occassionally, until mushrooms are tender. Stir in stuffing crumbs.
4. Spoon mushroom mixture into opening in pork; close pork over stuffing and secure with string. Place pork in shallow roasting pan. Brush with oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. (We decided that it would be nice to brown the roast quickly in a skillet at this point, before placing in the roasting pan. We are going to try that next time, but you would have to be careful when turning roast so as to not lose your stuffing.) Insert ovenproof meat thermometer so tip is in center of thickest part of pork.
5. Roast uncovered 45 to 55 minutes or until thermometer reads 150F. Remove pork from pan; cover with foil and let stand 10 minutes until thermometer reads 160F. Remove strings from pork before carving. Garnish with sage. 8 servings
   

We really enjoyed this one. I served it with steamed carrots and a salad.