Grilled summer-peach-marinated pork tenderloin with peach salsa

“Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.”  -- Alice Walker

Oh the lazy, hazy days of summer when it's hard to entertain anything but happy thoughts. It's my favorite time of year -- when Trader Joe's has boxes upon boxes of sweet, fragrant peaches, which I buy excitedly and then can't eat them fast enough. In honor of the peach season, I'm sharing my recipe for roasted pork loin marinated in peaches with peach salsa.

For the pork marinade:
- Two pork tenderloins, washed and dried
- Three peaches, almost overripe, retrieved from the fridge where they've been languishing
- A little red wine vinegar
- Olive oil
- Three cloves of garlic
- Salt & pepper
- A smidgeon of maple syrup

For the salsa:
- Two firm peaches, sliced thinly and diced
- One jalapeno, de-seeded, sliced and chopped finely
- Half a red onion, chopped finely
- A handful of cilantro, chopped roughly
- Half an orange pepper, diced finely
- Juice of one lime
- Olive oil
- A smidgeon of maple syrup (to bring out the flavor of the peaches)
- Salt & pepper

Whizz up the garlic in the food processor, add the peaches, vinegar, olive oil, syrup, salt and pepper and whizz till smooth.
Dump it into a ziploc bag with the pork tenderloin. Shake up and refrigerate for a couple of hours.
Meanwhile, combine the ingredients for the salsa and let it sit.
When ready, grill the tenderloins on a medium-hot barbecue for about 20 minutes. Let them sit under some foil for a few minutes to rest before carving.
Serves: about 8

We served this with fork-crushed purple potatoes*, a little tomato salad (the best farmers' market tomatoes in every shape and size sprinkled with salt and olive oil) & grilled romaine with a garlicky dressing. And of course, everything tastes better when it's served outside.

Happy peach season.

*There is a lovely man at the Studio City Sunday farmers' market who sells purple potatoes. In fact he only sells potatoes so he is easy to find. I buy two bags each week because I love them so. Good luck!