Roast Pork with Gingerbread Sauce and Celery Root with Bacon

Ingredients

• 5 pounds celery root 
• 8 servings gingerbread sauce 
• 8 servings kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper 
• 8 servings gingerbread wedges 
• 1 slices cranberry-orange relish thin
• 4.5 lb center-cut pork loin rib roast fat trimmed
• 8 ounces thick- bacon 

Equipment

• frying pan
• paper towels
• oven
• roasting pan
• kitchen thermometer
• aluminum foil
• slotted spoon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 35
2. Cut the bacon crosswise into 1/4-inch-wide strips. In a 10- to 12-inch frying pan over medium-high heat, stir bacon until lightly browned and slightly crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Discard all but 2 tablespoons fat in pan.
3. Peel celery root and cut into about 1/2-inch cubes (see notes). In a 12- by 17-inch roasting pan, mix celery root and the 2 tablespoons reserved bacon fat.
4. Bake for 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, rinse pork and pat dry.
6. Sprinkle lightly all over with salt and pepper. Stir celery root, then set a rack above mixture (it can rest on pan rim). Set roast, fat side up, on rack.
7. Bake in the 350 oven until a thermometer inserted in center of thickest part of roast reaches 155, 1 3/4 to 2 hours.
8. Transfer roast to a platter or board and let rest in a warm place, 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, stir bacon into celery root and return to oven; bake until celery root is lightly browned and tender when pierced, 8 to 15 minutes longer.
9. Add salt and pepper to the mixture to taste. Wrap gingerbread rounds in foil and warm in oven, 8 to 10 minutes, then break into wedges.
10. Spoon celery root alongside pork roast.
11. Garnish with orange slices and serve with Gingerbread Sauce and wedges.