Lamb Tenderloin With Garlic Rosemary And Bacon

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 lb lamb tenderloin, trimmed of fat
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 slices smoked bacon
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch (more or less depending on the amount of drippings you have)
• salt

Recipe

• 1 trim all silver skin from lamb tenderloin & cut 4 shallow slits in the surface. push in garlic clove halves. rub meat with olive oil. sprinkle with pepper.
• 2 line a baking sheet with a large piece of heavy duty aluminum foil. place a baking rack on the foil and lay out the bacon slices.
• 3 center the tenderloin across the bacon and arrange rosemary sprigs over the top.
• 4 wrap bacon slices around the meat and rosemary, securing with toothpicks if necessary. try to cover as much of the rosemary as possible so it doesn't burn when roasting.
• 5 cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
• 6 preheat oven to 425ºf.
• 7 remove meat from fridge and place in oven still wrapped. roast for 15 minutes.
• 8 uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes more or until internal temp reaches 150-155º. don't overcook it - the temp will rise about 5º-10º more from carry-over cooking after you take it out of the oven. your goal temp is ~160º. the meat may look faintly pink in the center but it is done if the juices run clear.
• 9 remove from oven and pour off pan drippings to a small saucepan. loosely rewrap meat with the foil and let rest for 10 minutes.
• 10 whisk the cornstarch into pan drippings, heating and stirring until thickened. add salt to taste and more pepper if you want.
• 11 remove toothpicks, bacon and rosemary from meat and discard. (my bacon wasn't uniformly crisp. if yours is, feel free to crumble it into the sauce.).
• 12 slice lamb at an angle into thin slices. serve with the gravy.