This dish is a loose homage to a vitello tonnato. Vitello tonnato is an Italian dish consisting of thinly sliced chilled veal loin with a creamy tuna mayonnaise sauce, usually served with capers, lemon, and parsley. It’s basically a meat salad. I wanted to do something similar to that, but in this case, with pork loin in lieu of the veal, and fennel in place of the parsley. And because the idea of tuna mayonnaise(which probably is a tuna sandwich lover’s dream) is less appealing to me, I went with an anchovy-lemon aioli as my dressing, something that has that punchiness and brininess of seafood as a nod to the tuna sauce. The end result was a light, refreshing cooked-carpaccio-type of thing, with bright lemon notes, crunchy-sweet fennel bits, and tender slices of pork. While I get that the portion in the picture was on the dainty side, you can totally make this in a much larger quantity – I just found that eating more than a small amount of these components at a time gets very heavy. I really envisioned this dish more as an end-of-summer-beginning-of-fall type of dish, so that’s why I went with some heartier components, but just plated more daintily.

For the pork loin:
1/2 pound pork loin
a pinch of salt
a pinch of cumin
a pinch of black pepper
a pinch of coriander
a pinch of paprika
canola oil

Pat the pork loin dry and dust the exterior with the spices and seasonings. Line a nonstick pan with canola oil. Sear the porn loin on each side for 2 minutes(four sides in total, not two). Then transfer to a roasting rack-lined sheet tray and roast at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes. Allow the pork loin to chill for 30 minutes before slicing into 1/8-inch pieces.

For the anchovy-lemon aioli:
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
a pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1 tsp anchovy paste
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp capers, chopped

In a bowl, let the garlic powder, lemon juice, zest, and salt sit together for 10 minutes. Then add to it the egg yolk and anchovy paste, whisking until combined. Then slowly whisk in the olive oil, and fold into that the capers to form your sauce.

For garnish:
Meyer lemon, sliced thinly
Fennel fronds
Fennel stems, minced
Olive oil
salt

Season the garnishes with a light drizzle of olive oil and salt. Arrange the pork slices on a plate with the aioli, Meyer lemon slices, fennel fronds, and stems to finish.