If you’re having family or friends over for supper and want to serve a meaty main dish you can prepare in advance, I have an Italian-style one that’s prepared “alla cacciatore.”
According to John Mariani’s The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, “alla cacciatore” means “hunter-style.” It refers to sautéed and braised meats cooked with such things as mushrooms and vegetables in a tomatoey sauce.
In days of yore, it was made with wild game, but over time, farm animals also began to be prepared “alla cacciatore,” including bone-in pieces of chicken — still the most popular option.
In my recipe for cacciatore, though, I switched things up and used pork. The cut I chose was boneless pork loin chops.
They were the smaller — about 85 grams each — thinner-cut style of boneless chops sometimes labelled “fast fry” at grocery stores because you can cook them quickly.
Because I wanted to prepare the chops “alla cacciatore,” I wasn’t looking to cook them quickly. Instead, I floured and seared the chops in hot olive oil and set them in a large casserole.
I then topped the chops with a simmering tomato, vegetable, olive and mushroom mixture, and covered and baked them for an hour, until they were tender and very flavourful.
If you wanted to make the dish in advance and serve it later, the Eric’s options part of the recipe provides details on how to do that.
The recipe yields six servings of two pork chops each. To make a meal, you could serve the chops with a bite-sized pasta, such as penne, orzo (rice-shaped pasta), polenta or rice pilaf, a steamed green vegetable, such as broccolini, and slices of foccacia bread.
Pork Chop Cacciatore
Boneless pork loin chops are floured, seared and baked until tender in a tomato sauce stocked with vegetables, mushrooms, olives and wine.
Preparation time: 60 minutes
Cooking time: about 85 minutes
Makes: six servings
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
12 (each about 85 grams and 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick ) boneless pork loin chops
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 small to medium green bell pepper, halved, seeded and diced
1 small carrot, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 small celery rib, halved lengthwise and sliced
6 medium brown or white mushrooms, halved sliced
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp dried oregano
• pinch red pepper flakes
1 (28 oz/796 mL) can whole tomatoes, coarsely chopped (see Note)
1/2 cup red wine (see Eric’s options)
1/2 cup chicken stock
15 black or green pitted olives, each halved
• small parsley sprigs, to taste, for garnish
• grated Parmesan cheese, to taste (optional)
Spread flour on a sided plate or pie plate. With a sharp knife, make a few slits into the fat/rind side of each pork chop. This should prevent the chops from curling up when they cook. Season the pork chops with salt and pepper. Now coat each chop in the flour, shaking off the excess.
Place the oil in a large skillet and set over medium, medium-high heat (my skillet was 12 inches wide). When oil is hot, sear pork in two or three batches until nicely brown on both sides. Set pork chops in a single or slightly overlapping layer in 12- x 16-inch or similar-sized large casserole. Preheat oven to 350 F.
Add the onion, bell pepper, carrot, celery and mushrooms to the skillet you seared the pork chops in and cook and stir five minutes. Mix in garlic, tomato paste, oregano and pepper flakes and cook one minute more.
Add tomatoes, wine, stock and olives to the skillet, season the sauce with salt and pepper, bring to a simmer, and simmer one minute (see Eric’s options). Pour sauce over the pork chops. Cover with foil and bake 60 minutes, or until the pork chops are tender and flavourful.
Arrange the chops on a large and attractive serving platter, then top with the sauce left in the casserole (see Eric’s options). Garnish the pork with parsley sprigs and, if desired, serve with Parmesan cheese for sprinkling on the pork at the table.
Note: Before chopping the tomatoes on a board, drain the liquid in the can into a small bowl. After chopping the tomatoes, be sure to add the liquid in the bowl and on the board to the sauce for the pork.
Eric’s options: If you don’t want to use wine, replace it with another 1/2 cup chicken stock. If you would prefer to serve the chops in a more casual fashion, serve them right from the casserole, not on a platter.
If you want to prepare the pork cacciatore mostly in advance, after searing the chops and setting them in the casserole, and making the tomato sauce mixture for them in the skillet, cool both to room temperature.
Cover and refrigerate both of them separately until needed. When you’re ready to serve, bring the tomato sauce mixture back to a simmer, then pour over the pork chops in the casserole.
Cover and bake as described in the recipe, adding five minutes to the baking time to account for the chops being refrigerator-cold.
Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
