Arista (Roast Pork Loin)

History

In Tuscany, arista is the roast loin of pork—spit-roasted or oven-baked, studded with garlic and rosemary, and traditionally eaten cold. Artusi records exactly this in 1891, placing it among the cold dishes and preferring the spit. He also passes on the dish's celebrated naming legend: that during a church council convened in Florence to reconcile the Roman and Greek churches, visiting Greek clergy tasted the roast and exclaimed aristos—"the best"—and the Greek word stuck. The story is charming but almost certainly apocryphal. Artusi himself dates the council to 1430, whereas the ecumenical Council of Florence is usually placed in 1439; more tellingly, the word predates any fifteenth-century banquet. A document of 1287 already refers to an "arista," and the Florentine storyteller Franco Sacchetti, writing late in the fourteenth century, mentions "an arista in the oven." The name most plausibly derives from the Greek aristos ("the best"), though whether it entered Tuscan through this council or by an earlier route the record does not settle.

Ingredients

• pork loin with ribs (schiena/back)
• garlic
• rosemary sprigs
• cloves
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Take a rib-in pork loin (3-4 kg), lard sparingly with garlic, rosemary sprigs and a few cloves, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Roast on a spit (best) or bake.
3. Use the rendered fat to brown potatoes or refresh greens; serve cold.