Pork Milanese

We made this dish earlier this week and it was delicious! This is another great meal for entertaining that can be prepped up to four hours ahead of time. Giada hasn’t lead me astray yet- here is another one of her awesome recipes from her Everyday Italian cookbook.

Pork Milanese

Time: 10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cook time

Serves: 4

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs, beaten

1 ¼ cups plain dried bread crumbs (we couldn’t find bread crumbs, so we used crushed croutons)

2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons dried basil

1 teaspoon dried thyme

4 8-oz center cut pork loin chops (1 inch thick)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 lemon cut into wedges

1. Place flour in a wide, shallow bowl. Place the eggs in another wide, shallow bowl. Mix the bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, basil and thyme in a third wide and shallow bowl. (This is all for breading the meat. Set up a station with the flour starting at one end, the eggs next, then the breading mixture.)
2. Use a meat mallet to pound the pork chops until they are ¼ inch thick. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper.
3. One chop at a time, dredge them in the flour to coat lightly, dip the chop into the beaten eggs and allow the excess egg to drip off. Finally, coat the chop in the breading mixture. Press gently to allow the mixture to stick. (If preparing ahead of time, place the chops on a lined cookie sheet and cover them. Then place in the refrigerator for up to 4 hours.)
4. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 150 degrees F.
5. Heat the oil and butter in a heavy sauté pan over medium heat until hot. Place two chops in the pan and cook until golden brown (about 3-4 minutes on each side). Once done, place the cooked chops on a lined cookie sheet and place in oven to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining two chops.  Salt and pepper can be added to taste. Once all four are done, serve immediately with a wedge of lemon.

NOTE: the lemon is key with this dish! I wasn’t going to serve it with the lemon and changed my mind after tasting it without the lemon. The lemon should be squeezed onto the meat before eating (similar to how you would use lemon with seafood). This extra acidity really brings out the flavors of the breading on the pork chops.

We served the chops with steamed carrots and zucchini. Grilled asparagus could be another great side for this meal. Serve it with a medium bodied red wine- in our case we opened a bottle of Chianti Classico Riserva. Enjoy!

 

Reference:

De Laurentiis, G. (2005). Everyday Italian: 125 simple and delicious recipes. New York, NY: Clarkson Potter/Publishers.