This easy dinner party main dish features three of my favorite little helpers: anchovies, the food processor, and the slow cooker. I sneak anchovies into as many things as I can to boost and funk up flavors (just as long as there aren’t vegetarians at my table). The food processor used here can be a mini prep (in fact, I prefer my mini prep for this) or a full size—either way it turns the task of making a flavor-packed paste to rub all over the pork roast a day or two in advance into a breeze.
The slow cooker is my favorite tool for cooking big hunks of meat without turning on the oven and heating the kitchen in the summer. I’m sorry to all you Instant Pot fans out there, but I just love my slow cooker. I like that I can open it up and poke at the meat and know exactly what’s happening. I use a 4-quart slow cooker for this recipe because it’s the only one I have and the pork roast just barely fits into it, which means the pork very quickly gets submerged in a bath of its own fat—a good thing for a pork roast to do. But you can use whatever size you have.
Serve this easy slow-cooker pork with my Pickled Peppercorn Vinaigrette drizzled over the top.
To roast pork in the oven, place the pork in a large Dutch oven, cover, and roast in a 300°F oven, basting occasionally, until the meat is fork-tender, 6 to 7 hours.
Recipe information
Yield
Serves 8–10
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
The night before or up to 2 days before cooking, pulse the anchovies, garlic, mustard, salt, sugar, pepper, and allspice in the jar of a food processor until a thick paste forms. Rub that paste all over your tied pork roast, pushing it between the cracks as much as possible. (If you care about how your hands smell, you might want to wear gloves for this process.)
Step 2
If you have room to store the insert of your slow cooker in the fridge, tuck the rubbed roast into it, cover it, and refrigerate. If there’s just no room, seal it into a resealable plastic bag and then refrigerate. Let it sit at least overnight or up to 2 days so that the salt and seasonings in the paste have a chance to penetrate the meat to tenderize and flavor it.
Step 3
Place the insert and the pork into your slow cooker set to low, cover, and cook until the meat is fork-tender but not completely falling apart, 7 to 7½ hours. (If it’s done cooking before you’re ready for it, simply remove it from the cooker, wrap it tightly in foil, and let it sit for up to 2 hours, then re-warm—still wrapped—in a 300°F oven before slicing.)
Step 4
Transfer to a cutting board and let rest 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the butcher’s twine, then slice and transfer to a serving platter. Drizzle vinaigrette over the top, or strain some of the juice out of the slow cooker, drizzle that over the top instead, and toss a flurry of chopped herbs over the top to make it pretty.
Recipe notes
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Marinate this pork roast a day or two in advance, throw the whole thing in your trusty slow cooker, and dinner is a hands-off affair.
