So my friend Dawn used to tell me that she was convinced there was Italian in my heritage because my Italian food seems to always be a hit! After tonight, I think she may be right. On the menu tonight was Rachael Ray's "Pork Chops Smothered with Peppers & Onions and Buttery Tomato Spaghetti".
The first thing I did was start the pasta side dish. Put on the pasta water to boil and then start the sauce. The sauce for this is probably one of the easiest pasta sauces you'll ever make. This sauce comes from Rachael's mother. Her mother doesn't like to chop and so she created this tomato basil sauce that doesn't require any chopping! Almost no chopping at all involved in this one!! Start out by melting 6 Tbs. of butter in a pot over medium heat. Yes, 6 Tbs. is correct, after all it is called "Buttery" tomato spaghetti. So melt the butter and then add the tomatoes and veggies. You simply peel an onion, cut it in half and toss it in, grate one clove of garlic in, add a few leaves of torn basil and season with salt. Now a couple things. I also add a bay leaf. The recipe doesn't call for it but I love the flavor of bay with onion and tomato. Secondly, I actually roll up the basil leaves and chiffonade them. When you chiffonade you slice the basil leaves into very thin strips like a basil confetti. I don't like biting into big pieces of basil so I go with the chiffonade. If you don't mind the bigger pieces, just tear them and throw them in. Let it reduce over medium heat for about 20 minutes and it's done. The recipe calls for crushed San Marzano tomatoes. San Marzano tomatoes are imported from a specific region in Italy and are a rich sweet tomato. Rachael Tip: Make sure if you buy San Marzano tomatoes that you are actually buying a product from Italy. Look for DOP on the label or make sure that San Marzano isn't the brand name. Some companies use San Marzano as their name but the tomatoes are not imported. I couldn't find crushed San Marzano so I substituted crushed Italian plum tomatoes and it was still fantastic. If you start the pasta water to boil and then begin the sauce, you should drop the pasta and finish the sauce and just about the same time. Once the pasta reaches al dente, reserve a cup or so of the starchy cooking water and then drain the pasta. Add the starchy water to the sauce and then toss with the pasta until it forms a nice sauce on the pasta. The starchy cooking water is essential in this. It is what helps the sauce to stick to the pasta.
Rachael Tip: This tip is for the storage of your basil. Most herbs can be washed, dried, placed in a plastic food storage bag and put in the refrigerator. Basil doesn't tend to like the cold as much so the best way is to place in a cup or vase of water and keep it on the countertop. I brought mine home today and did just that and in about an hour, it was drooping. Rachael's tip to extend the life of the basil is to take a plastic food storage bag and place it over the cup of basil. This creates a greenhouse effect and can help to extend the life of the basil by a few days!
Once you have the pasta sauce underway you are ready to start the pork chops. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees to begin with. Before you start cooking at all, take the chops out of the refrigerator to knock the chill off of them. Rachael Tip: Bring the chops up to room temp before you put them in the hot pan. Placing super cold meat in a screaming hot skillet will cause the meat to seize up. Also, pat it dry before seasoning and placing in the skillet to get a great caramelization on the meat! Once the chops are at room temperature and you've started the pasta sauce, heat the EVOO in the skillet until it begins to ripple and waft it's first bits of smoke. At this point it's ready for the pork chops. Add them to the skillet and leave them alone! You want to leave them on one side for a few minutes to develop a nice brown before you flip them to side two. Once they are browned on both sides, remove them to a plate. While the chops brown slice the onion, peppers, chile pepper and chop the garlic. The chile pepper for this is a red fresno chile pepper.
Rachael Tip: Fresno's are a mild chile that have a sort of fruity heat to them. If you have a higher heat tolerance you can slice it with the seeds and ribs left in. If you have a lower heat tolerance, remove the seeds and ribs from the pepper and then slice. The seeds and ribs are where the heat lives in any chile pepper. Once the chops come out add another drizzle of oil and add in the veggies and add in the fennel seeds. Cook until the veggies soften up a bit and then add in the tomato paste and cook it out for a minute. At this point you can deglaze the pan with wine. You can use either a white or red for this dish. I prefer red and my favorite red wine is Nero D'Avloa. Nero D'Avola is a red wine from Sicily that is great. It's usually inexpensive but if you have a red wine that you really enjoy, by all means, use that. Once the wine cooks out for a minute, add the chicken stock to the pan. Slide the chops back in, including all the juices that have collected on the plate, and then place the onions and peppers on top. Put the chops in the oven and then let them finish cooking through for about 10 minutes or so.
This one turned out to be really good. If you enjoy the drinking wine, it would be great with a glass of the Nero D'Avola. I myself don't like drinking wine so for me a nice glass of sweet tea was enough. This one was really good and I think you'll all love it. Until next time, happy cooking!!
Recipe: Both recipes were featured in Rachael Ray's book "My Year In Meals". The buttery tomato spaghetti was also featured on her Food Network program "30 Minute Meals". The recipe for the spaghetti can be found at the link below! Enjoy!
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