Pork Milanese with Spring Salad + Lemon Vinaigrette

Milanese is Italian for a breaded fillet of meat. That means it could be steak, chicken, lamb, you name it. I chose pork because of how big you can get that cutlet pounded it out to. Sure you can pound a sirloin or a filet mignon, but why do that to those types of already tender meats? Pork was the easy pick for me.

Since we are in the midst of Spring I wanted to make a light refreshing salad to go along with the hearty breaded pork. Spring product is such an eclectic collection of food because there are still so many root vegetables that are in season, but then you start getting into the spring mix lettuces, cherry tomatoes, etc. The salad also helps to provide some balance with its white balsamic vinegar-y umami-sweet flavor with the salty pan-fried pork. To change up the presentation of the tri-colored baby carrots and radishes I simply shaved them a peeler, go figure.

To me the balance of a dish is most important so when you take a bit of everything at once it’s an explosion of delicious flavors. To help balance the vinegar and the salad dressing, I added a bit of honey to it as well as making candied walnuts. You literally cook together walnuts and brown sugar, that’s it. Don’t overdo it, don’t over think it, just add them both to a sauté pan and stir over low to medium heat until the brown sugar melts and coats the walnuts.

There are a number of different vinaigrettes that would work wonderfully with this pork Milanese, but I thought the freshness in the lemon would help activate the taste buds into Spring, which we are so desperately waiting for. Making a homemade vinaigrette is beyond easy, and let’s be honest if Paul Newman can do it so can you! Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and whisk! What’s so hard about that? Nothing, EXACTLY!

Let’s move on to the pork. I chose a bone-in Frenched pork chop, Frenched just means that the bone is exposed and scraped, and then I pounded the heck out of it. Pounding out meat to tenderize can be extremely helpful when trying to release stress because after all you literally get to pound on it until it's perfectly flattened. Don’t beat it into submission so that it’s broken up and destroyed but you can take the hammer to it a bit.

Once the pork is flattened we need to bread it up. Enter in the “Standard Breading Procedure,” which consists of seasoned flour, egg wash, and bread crumbs. Now because you have to account for these three things to season your cut of meat, I like to season each one with salt and pepper to ensure that the pork is delicious and properly seasoned. It’s also vital to press the flour and bread crumbs into the meat to ensure it is completely coated before going to the next breading procedure or cooking it.

From there it’s pan fry time! Pour about a ¼ of a cup of olive oil into a large sauté pan and as soon as the oil begins to lightly smoke, turn down the heat and add the pork to the pan and sauté. I like to add a little butter to help brown the pork but also because butter makes everything better... No really it does!

Enjoy this recipe and be sure to change it as you see fit to your taste buds!