Pork Milanese!

Last week I made Pork Milanese - a pretty basic recipe, but a great method of cooking. You start out with pork loin chops that are pounded to get a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Salt and pepper are sprinkled on each side of each pork chop. Next three stations are set up composing of a shallow bowl of flour, a shallow bowl of whisked eggs, and a shallow bowl with a breadcrumb mixture (plain breadcrumbs, dried thyme, dried basil, parmesan cheese). Once all the stations are ready to go, you take each pork chop, lightly coat it in flour, dip it in the egg mixture, and coat it with breadcrumbs. Olive oil and butter are heated in a large, deep skillet and the pork chops are cooked for about 4 minutes on each side.

I really liked this recipe! The crunchy exterior of the pork was really yummy and the pork was moist and not overcooked. The only thing was that the outside of the pork had all the flavor, so I would serve the pork with some type of sauce on the side. Giada has a section in Everyday Italian called "Everyday Leftovers." It's basically a section with a few recipes that use up stuff from her other recipes. She had a recipe for a Pork Milanese Sandwich that I was pumped to make! Sandwiches and pasta are two of my favorite foods to make AND eat. There are pretty much endless possibilities of what you can do with pasta and sandwiches.

I can make them simple, or something really special. You can use different sauces, different meats, different vegetables, etc.! So, when I read the Pork Milanese Sandwich recipe I was pretty excited. To make this sandwich, you start by taking some of the inner bread out of a nice Italian roll. Then you mash some avocado on one side of the roll. Sliced Pork Milanese is layered on followed by arugula that has been tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. I put a few more drops of balsamic vinegar onto the whole sandwich to give some extra flavor. Even though Giada had no cheese in the recipe, I added a few thin slices of fontina cheese because I just didn't feel like the sandwich would be complete without it. I loved this sandwich! It tasted like a gourmet sandwich I'd pay $8 for at some fancy sandwich shop. The arugula and avocado made it taste so fresh and the pork accompanied it very well. After tasting it, my mom said "I can't wait to come over to your house someday to eat the yummy food you make!" That statement alone made me pretty happy :). I don't think I'm going to add on new recipes this week because I'm so behind and this is a pretty busy week for me with school. Hopefully I will get caught up!

Time spent: 3 hours and 30 minutes