Pork , Peppers, and (you guessed it) Pinot

I didn’t grow up eating much pork.  When we did have pork it was in the form of bacon at breakfast or ham at Christmas.  Other than those two dishes mom didn’t really cook with the other white meat.  My hubby on the other hand did eat more pork, but wasn’t a huge fan.  He complained that pork was usually dry so he shied away from it in his adult years.  I, however, was bound and determined to make a pork dish that tasted good and was good for you too.

After many failed attempts at making juicy boneless pork chops I decided to go back to a classic recipe, the breaded pork chop.  Now when you hear breaded, healthy isn’t the first word that comes to mind.  The term breaded comes with connotations of hot oil, deep fryers, and high cholesterol, but I’m here to prove otherwise!

Now you can use two different types of breading when making this dish, panko bread crumbs or almond meal, both are great and I go back and forth between the two.  The panko gives a lighter feel to the dish while the almond meal makes more of a crust-like texture around the pork.  The key to this recipe is coating the bottom of the glass pan with a good amount of olive oil so the pork browns up nicely and stays juicy.  For this particular recipe I went with Panko bread crumbs with a side of sautéed peppers, onions, and a marinara sauce.

Recipe

Six boneless pork chops

1.5-2 cups of almond meal or panko bread crumbs

2 eggs

2 tablespoons of almond, cashew, or dairy milk

2 tablespoons of oregano

Salt & pepper to taste

3 peppers (I used yellow, orange, and green but any combination works) sliced in strips

1 yellow onion thinly sliced

2-3 garlic cloves minced

1 can (28 ounce) of died or whole tomatoes

2 tablespoons of fresh basil or 1.5 teaspoons of dried

Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Take a cookie sheet and generously cover it with olive oil.  In a dish spread out the crumbs and sprinkle in oregano.  Mix the eggs and milk, place in a deep dish that can accommodate the pork chop.  Season both sides of the pork chop with salt and pepper, drip in the egg mixture, and dredge through the crumbs making sure all sides are coated.  Place on oiled cookie sheet and continue with the remaining chops.  Place in oven and cook for 30-35 minutes depending on the thickness of the loin.  To ensure the pork is cooked through it needs to reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees.  Make sure to check the chop so you don’t overcook it; going beyond 145 degrees will result in a dry pork chop and no one wants that!

While the pork is cooking heat a sauté pan on medium and add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Cook the minced garlic for 30 seconds then add in the peppers and onions cooking until the peppers are tender and the onion is translucent, about 5-7 minutes.  Reduce the heat to low to keep the mixture warm.

Place your canned tomatoes in a deep pan, add basil, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, salt & pepper to taste, and using an immersion blender puree the mixture.  If you don’t have an immersion blend just switch out the diced or whole canned tomatoes to tomato sauce; you can even use a pre-made marinara sauce if you don’t want to doctor up plain tomatoes.  Heat over medium high heat until bubbly then reduce to low.

Plate the pork, top it with the marinara sauce, and add the side of peppers.  My hubby actually mixed his peppers and marinara together before topping the pork, either way works!

Wine to pair?

Well as the title of this post implies I usually (actually like always, who am I kidding) pair pork with a Pinot Noir.  I go with a fruit forward Pinot Noir that has good acidity to cut through the marinara sauce without overpowering the pork.  A really nice Pinot Noir winery that we recently had the great fortune to stumble upon is Navarro Vineyards in Mendocino County.  They have two excellent Pinot Noirs that would both go well with this dish and are priced extremely reasonable.  They are able to keep their prices down since they don’t distribute their wines, which means you’ll need to buy direct from the winery or via their website for shipping (we’ve done both very easily).

The weather was quite hot the last time I sent an order in so they held off sending our wine until the weather cooled down.  Even though I was missing my wine I really appreciated their attention to detail to ensure their wines would arrive in good condition (no one likes to sweat, especially wine).  I sometimes wonder if I should keep these great finds all to myself, but good wine is meant to be shared so try them (and this dish) out and let me know what you think.

https://www.navarrowine.com/main.php

Cheers!