Pork chops with sage and tomatoes

 

I can't believe I've not posted about this dish before. 

Pork, sage, tomatoes - that's pretty well it. 

It's so delicious. We skip the flour, but it browns nicely without. The trick, as is usually the case, is the get the best of everything: free range pork, best tomatoes, sage from your garden, the best salt and fats. If you use a crappy bit of pork it will be like an old boot. 

Cook until it's done. This doesn't mean stopping after the suggested hour, or god help us, 20 minutes as I read in someone's blog post. You cook the pork till it's tender when prodded with a fork. That might take 40 minutes. Or it might take 2 hours. 

Pork Loin Braised with Savoy Cabbage

 

Here is a recipe from Giuliano Hazan's Every Night Italian. A lovely man, and a fantastic book, which I understand from Giuliano is still in print. 

As with Marcella's recipes, there are very few ingredients here. But they work magic, and provide a comforting winter dish. 

I used normal cabbage, and it worked great. 

Spareribs Pan-Roasted with Sage and White wine, Treviso style

These little beauties are well worth a go. I read somewhere else that Marcella learnt this from her assistant - probably 50 years ago. Well, they are still tasty. 

It's important with recipes to read the instructions carefully. Marcella once said cooking times bored her, because it might take 3 times as long on your stove than hers. It depends on the heat, and what's being cooked, no doubt among other things. 

I ended up cooking these for over an hour - maybe 70 minutes, until her description was matched and the meat came away easily from the bone.

Worth the wait. 

Pork loin with leeks

I'm on a bit of a pork roll. I never used to cook pork. My brother does, in an open fire pit. And it is delicious. But I never do. Not many people do really. And if they do, it is with crackling. Nobody I know cooks it on the stove.

Except myself and the Hazans.

Like chicken, then lamb, then risotto, now that I've discovered it I'm enjoying cooking my through all of the Hazan pork recipes that take my fancy. To recap highlights have been:

- Pork and Vinegar (Essentials);

- Pork with Apples and Plumbs (How to Cook Italian); and

- Pork with Cabbage (Every Night Italian).

The glaring omission from all of this, of course, is Marcella's famous Pork with Milk. I'm trying to psyche myself up to that one.

Anyway, I have loved them all. The apples and plumbs one was an obvious hit - who doesn't like a sweet fruit sauce with pork? The vinegar and bay leaves was a real surprise, with a flavour that we didn't expect, but that was sophisticated and delicious. The cabbage was mopped up to the last drop.

But onto leeks (from How to Cook Italian). The process is like the others. It is a very simple way to cook pork. I was worried I had too many leeks, but it was fine, as it turns out.

I kept cooking for a little longer than was called for, to ensure the leeks turned into a delicious sauce and were no longer recognisable as bits of leek.

And how was it? For me, it was very good, but not quite as delicious as the others. The pork tasted of well pork (which is a good thing) and the leeks were a delicious leeky sauce like an onion sauce but without the sweetness. I'd cook it again for the hell of it if I spotted some leeks.

We certainly got into it.

As a side, I had a productive Hazan Saturday afternoon, also cooking:

- Tuscan Ragu (double batch) (How to Cook Italian) - to freeze;

- Meat Broth for risotto (Marcella Says) - also to freeze; and

- Roast chicken with rosemary and garlic (How to Cook Italian) - in the fridge.

It is a point Marcella makes in an earlier book. If you are cooking for a few hours, why not do a few dishes at once. That makes your life easier down the track.

Pork loin braised with cabbage

This is another dish from Giuliano Hazan's Every Night Italian. I'm still going through my pork stage, which has followed my chicken stage and lamb stage. This is similar to the others, although here the cabbage is cooked for a couple of hours with some bay leaves and white wine to become a lovely sauce.

The flavour is quite unique. It is completely different to the pork with vinegar, even though both use bay leaves.

I hope to make this again.

Pork with Vinegar and Bay Leaves and Tuscan Soup

Another simple Hazan recipe. People speak highly of it. Now that I have discovered pork loin, I am keen to try a few of her pork recipes.

I bought pork this time that didn't have an obnoxious amount of crackling fat on it, although it did have some fat (which I partially chopped off). It is not a cut of meat that butchers usually sell, as such. I think here anyway they make pork chops out of it or pork steaks. I'm not sure what they are called but they are cut up from the loin and sold separately.

Anyway, I asked for it and managed to get it.

There isn't much to do with this one. I browned the meat as requested, feeling faintly guilty at planning a meal of pork cooked in butter when I am trying to decrease in size rather than increase.

A teaspoon of peppercorns were bashed, not with a hammer as suggested, but with a rolling pin. I don't find I roll anything with that pin, just bash.

In they went with the dried bay leaves. I had bought fresh but they disappeared somewhere between the vege shop and home. I really need to buy myself another bay tree.

The vinegar was next. If Marcella Hazan has done one thing, it is to make me appreciate vinegar. Just last night I had a salad dressed with it. My favourite Hazan dish is now braised lamb with vinegar and beans.

The recipe calls for the vinegar to not be boiled away while the sides and bottom of the pan are scraped. I dutifully complied, but my urgent scraping resulted in hot fat and vinegar jumping from the pan and onto my arm. I was more worried about the lost vinegar than the burn, as so I poured a little more in the pan, and put the lid on tightly.

Prior to putting the pork on I had started off a batch of Giuliano Hazan's Tuscan Soup from his Every Night Italian. This soup is a miracle really, as there is no stock or broth to speak of, and it is still delicious. Having said that, if I have broth to burn it is even tastier if you use it instead of water. Unfortunately I did not, but I did sneak in a parmesan cheese rind which Marcella suggests is a good idea. I think it is.

It is a good feeling having pots simmering on the stove, filling the house with comforting cooking smells, and knowing that all the work has been done hours before any guests arrive.

On the question of timing, Marcella is a little vague, suggesting that I cook until the pork is tender. The efforts of others documented on the internet had timeframes from 40 minutes to an hour and a half. I could have asked her but I really didn't want to agitate on something so trivial.

On a whim I took a look at her Classic Italian Cookbook, published before I was born in 1973. This is of course the book that started it all and which was combined with More Classic Italian Cooking in the early 90s to form Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Here Marcella helpfully suggests that the pork be cooked for at least 2 hours. Pleasingly she also says that a minestrone would be a good first course.

The planets aligned for this meal. The Tuscan Soup was absolutely sublime (thanks Giuliano) and the pork was a fabulous followup. The pork tasted of itself but was in a beautiful vinegar and pepper sauce. It was subtle, divine, delectable and delicious.

We really enjoyed it.

This recipe is a keeper.

Thanks Marcella.

Pork loin with apples and plums

I didn't plan on making this last night. To be honest, I was thinking about perhaps trying Marcella's braised pork with vinegar, or perhaps some Indian food (yes I'm chancing my hand with some spice occasionally).

But then Giulano posted a link to him cooking a pork loin with apples and apricots which looked damn good and so I had to give it a crack.

This recipe is in his "How to Cook Italian". It actually calls initially for plums rather than apricots, so that's what I bought. Good time of year to cook them, summer, with all the stone fruit out.

I bought my loin of pork. I was concerned about all the fat on it. It just seemed way too much. I peered at Guilano's video and his didn't seem to have nearly as much fat on it. But Marcella says to leave it on in some of her pork recipes. I tried to ask the teacher himself without being too forceful, and kindly and generously, he clarified.

Giuliano Hazan

Giuliano Hazan prepares Pork with Apples & Plums on Daytime

Uploaded to www.youtube.com

Giuliano prepares a great festive pan-roasted pork loin with apples and plums on Daytime.

8 hours ago via YouTube · · Comment

• 3 people like this.
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    David Downie Giuliano, this will be my new years eve dish. I'll be sure to report back on my blog documenting how it goes.

    8 hours ago ·
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    David Downie Looking at your pork loin it looks as though the fat is trimmed off it.

    4 hours ago ·
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    Giuliano Hazan Not completely, David, though in American markets I suspect more fat may be trimmed off. Hope you enjoy it while bringing the new year in! Best wishes.

    3 hours ago ·
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    David Downie Giuliano, thanks very much for commenting. I was googling pork loin and fat trimming. I will take a little off only then! I am making your superb scallop and breadcrumb pasta for our first course. Happy New Year to you and your family. david

    3 hours ago ·

So I took to the fat with my knife. As it turns out, there was actually more fat than meat in the loin I managed to buy. It didn't look too bad after I found the meat. To think, if this were roasted all that fat would have gone down the throat. It made me sick thinking about it.

I gave Basil the kitten a chance to play with it for a few minutes before binning it.

The next steps were to brown the meat, soften the onion, and cut the fruit.

The really fun bit was pouring in some red wine and boiling off the alcohol. In the name of all that is holy, this was the most amazing smell. More so for me because I am off the grog for 12 months and am over 6 months in.

So I couldn't get my head out of the pot as it wafted into my nostrils.

The meat joined the fruit and onion and, still on a high from the alcohol, I declared that everything that was good and right in the world was in that pot.

The spoon was sampled and there were some sour notes. From the fruit perhaps? I hoped it wasn't from the wine, as I wasn't able to taste it before it went in.

Within 40 minutes any sour notes had disappeared, and the official taster declared that the sauce activated all the pleasure sensors at the back of her mouth.

When the meat was cooked it was finely sliced and put back into the sauce. It was greeted with many oos and aaars at the table, and pronounced genius by all.

This recipe is a keeper. The pork wasn't dry and tasted of itself, and the sauce was sweet and delicious. I will be making this one again!

Drunken pork

Such high hopes! Let's be honest, my big wins with Marcella have been the chickens. The cabbage and red wine. The rosemary, olive and cherry tomatoes (from a later book). Even the chicken and two lemons. I wanted to move onto another meats.  So I wandered down the butcher and he had a nice piece of pork. So to speak. 

Drunken pork it was. It looked easy enough.
My first mistake was thinking the carrots were to be put all over the pork. That looked a bit silly and I read it again and they were only to go in the ends. In they went.
Then came the flower and the browning. No worries there.
Then the drunken part arrived. First I poured in some brandy. Marcella calls for 1.5 cups of red wine, or more if you need to in order to almost cover the meat. Is she kidding? What sort of lump of pork can you almost cover with 1.5 cups? I ended up using over a bottle of shiraz along with the bay leaves and nutmeg.
Then came the long cooking at a simmer. All going to plan except with all the wine it didn't reduce in the time Marcella expected, and I had to boil it off at the end. I must say when there was quite a bit of wine still left in the pot the taste was very pleasant. 
Eventually I was able to carve it up, and spoon on some of the syrup as suggested by the big M.
All very pretty. Unfortunately, my sauce had acquired a sharp, vinegary taste that made the whole thing a bit unpleasant. Only saved by the excellent mash. The texture was fine, but the taste was something to avoid in the future.

What went wrong? Did I reduce too much wine? Is it meant to have this taste? 

I'm not sure if I will ever fine out. I want to work out how to cook pork on top of the stove though, so watch this space.