pork chops with lemon, lovage; tomato; flat beans

pork_chop_tom_Romano

This approach to an excellent pork chop has almost become formulaic in my kitchen;  it’s the changing details and accompaniments that keep it fresh, as well as the variety of good wines pair well with it.

  • two bone-in loin pork chops from Flying Pig Farms, thoroughly dried, seasoned with salt and pepper, seared in a heavy enameled cast-iron pan, half of a small, almost-sweet organic lemon squeezed over them, then left in the pan, roasted in a 400º oven for about 14 minutes (flipped halfway through and the lemon squeezed over them once again), removed from the oven, sprinkled with chopped lovage from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, and the pan juices spooned over the top
  • two large-ish Maine cherry, ‘cocktail’ tomatoes from Whole Foods, added to the pan with the chops near the end of their time in the oven, removed, and sprinkled with savory from Berried Treasures
  • flat green or Romano beans from Norwich Meadows Farm, par-boiled, drained, dried (shaking over a flame the pan in which they had cooked), reheated in a bit of olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper
  • the wine was a New Zealand white, Whitehaven Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2014
  • the music was that of George Tsontakis [it was the night before the Greek referendum, and although the composer was born in Queens, we enjoyed the appositeness of a choice which had been entirely unconscious]