Tender, juicy, and topped with a delicious cream sauce, Pork Loin with Parmesan and Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce must be added to your dinner menu! Pair this with a Grilled Peach Salad to really be a show-off!
Pork Loin with Parmesan and Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce
Meat is an important part of a lot of people’s diets and should be chosen wisely. Have you heard of Selenium and/or Phosphorus? Pork loin is a good source for those two minerals! Selenium helps regulate metabolism, (and who doesn’t need help with that?!?), and phosphorus is good for strong bones. For those two reasons alone, I think I am going to be cooking a lot more recipes with pork loin in the future!
Pork Loin with Parmesan and Roasted Garlic Sauce Recipe
Yes, the name is long, but I had to make sure you could sense all the flavor that you will be tasting in this recipe! There are three main parts to the Pork Loin with Parmesan and Roasted Garlic Sauce recipe–the roasted garlic, the pork loin, and the cream sauce.
Garlic Ingredients
- Garlic
- Olive oil
Pork Loin
- Pork loin
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
Cream Sauce Ingredients
- Half and half
- Flour
- Chicken broth
- Oregano
- Pecorino Romano cheese
- Parmesan cheese
- Sun-dried tomatoes
- Baby spinach
- Cayenne pepper
How to Make Pork Loin with Parmesan and Roasted Garlic Sauce
When you put everything together, Pork Loin with Parmesan and Roasted Garlic will be your new favorite dinner to serve. The pork loin is so tender and the sauce is creamy, cheesy, and garlicky. What’s nice about this recipe is that you can add as little or as much of the sauce onto your pork loin as you like.
With roasted garlic in the name, let’s focus on that first! Preheat the oven to 450°F. Take four cloves of garlic and cut each of them in half. Place them on a piece of tin foil and drizzle them with olive oil. Form a pouch around the garlic and cook for 12-15 minutes. Smash the garlic when it is done and set it aside for the cream sauce.
How to Cook a Pork Loin
In this Pork Loin with Parmesan and Roasted Garlic Sauce, I used a center-cut pork loin, not a pork tenderloin. Although the names are very similar, the cuts of meat are actually quite different. Both cuts of meat are very lean and healthy, but the size and cooking times are quite a bit different. The center-cut pork loin is quite a bit larger than a pork tenderloin.
Center-cut pork loin is one of the leanest cuts of meat, so be careful about choosing one. The redder the meat, the leaner it is, but also the tougher it is. I recommend choosing a pork loin with a more pinkish color with some white streaks. Don’t be fooled if you see a pork sirloin. That is a different cut of meat that is not as tender or lean as a pork loin or tenderloin.
The first step is to sear the pork loin in a hot skillet (cast iron being best). Sear both sides for a few minutes, or until it is golden brown. The next step is to roast it in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Take it out when the internal temperature reaches 145°F. Put up a nice foil tent over the pork loin to keep it warm while you make the cream sauce.
How to Make the Cream Sauce
This is the creamy, cheesy, garlicky sauce that will top off your perfectly cooked pork loin. Using the same skillet you seared the pork, heat the half and half, flour, and chicken broth over medium-high heat. Make sure you scrape all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan to mix in! Next, stir in the oregano and cheeses. After the cheese has melted, lower the heat to a little below medium. Add the rest of the ingredients. Don’t forget to add the garlic you roasted and set aside! Once the spinach has wilted and the tomatoes have softened, you are ready to drizzle that goodness all over the pork loin!
How to Serve Pork Loin
It is up to you if you drizzle the cream sauce onto the pork loin before you cut it, or let people add their desired amount to their own piece. I am not a huge sauce person, so having it on the side works for me, but you put in the hard work to make this recipe, so you do YOU! The thickness of the slices is also up to you. I usually cut it into 1-inch slices, carefully measured, of course😉. Any way you slice it (get it?) This pork loin will be a recipe you make more than once! Serve it with Roasted Garlic Asparagus for a balanced meal!
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Pork Loin with Parmesan and Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce
Ingredients
Roasted Garlic
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
Pork Loin
- 1 pork loin, about 3 pounds
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Cream Sauce
- ¾ cup half-and-half
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- ⅓ cup Pecorino Romano cheese, freshly grated
- ⅓ cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
- ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
- 1 ½ cups baby spinach
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
Roasted Garlic
- Cut each clove of garlic in half and place on top of a piece of tin foil. Drizzle with olive oil. Form a foil pouch around the garlic, leaving the top open slightly. Place directly on the oven rack, opening side up, and roast until the garlic is tender (about 12-15 minutes). Use a fork to smash the garlic and set aside.
Pork Loin
- Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork loin to the hot skillet and sear until golden brown on each side, approximately 8-10 minutes per side. Season with salt and black pepper, to taste. Remove from skillet and transfer the pork loin to a baking sheet. Reserve the skillet.
- Place the baking sheet into the oven and roast until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 145°, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven. Tent to keep warm and set aside.
Cream Sauce
- To the skillet, over medium-high heat, add half & half, chicken broth, and flour. Stir until it thickens, and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan with a spatula. Add oregano and grated cheese to skillet and whisk until cheese is completely melted, approximately 3-4 minutes.
- Reduce heat to just below medium and add the roasted garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, baby spinach, and cayenne. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until tomatoes are softened and the spinach wilts.
- Slice pork loin into 1-inch pieces and drizzle cream sauce over the top.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
Thank you for making my recipe! You took pictures, right? Well go ahead and post them on Instagram! Be sure to mention me @iambaker and use the hashtag #YouAreBaker.
Sounds great, looking forward to trying this recipe and adding rosemary to the garlic bake. Question though, do you brine the pork at all?
Aaaaaamazing! Lots of flavor! Total win for my family!
This was amazing! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
If I use heavy cream instead of half and half do I still need to use the flour?
Hi, Kim! I work with iambaker and am happy to help with questions. Adding the flour will thicken the cream sauce, even using heavy cream, so it depends on how thick you want the sauce. Without the flour, it won’t be as ‘gravy-like’. Have a great day!
Great recipe. Being a southern cook I added more cheese and used parm and Asiago but mainly because that’s what I had on hand also more spinach and lots more garlic. Over all great dish and thank you for sharing.
Looking forward to trying this!
In the instructions, #1 under Pork Loin, there is still the word tenderloin. I had to double check but I think you mean loin.
Hi, Sue! I work with iambaker and am happy to help with questions. Yes, we used a pork loin in this recipe. Thanks, and have a great day!
What temperature for pork when it is in the oven
Delicious! I substituted half the chicken broth with Chardonnay and used heavy cream …also used roasted cherry tomatoes instead of sun-dried:)
This was restaurant quality delicious! My family and I loved it. My pork loin was a little smaller than called for which meant I had some extra sauce and that was a gift. My husband even said he could eat it with a spoon it was so good. Thanks!
OMG that sauce is FANOMINAL.. I cooked my pork differently but as tender as the roast came out and as delicious the sauce complimented it. I feel I’ve been missing out on nice pork meal most of my life. This will be a new addition to the menue. Thank you. Only thing I did different I didn’t have chicken stock so used beef I had on hand I absolutely reccomend this.