Pork Chops with Mushroom Sauce

The best choice for pork chops is bone-in thick-cut 99% of the time.  They are generally thicker and tend to not overcook as much as a thinner, bone-out cuts.  This recipe, from Food Network Magazine, has a simple but wonderful mushroom and green onion gravy to pair with your pork. I served this dish with pureed parsnips (a recipe coming soon) to take the place of carb-filled mashed potatoes.  They were silky with an earthy flavor from the under-utilized root vegetable.  This is a quick recipe for a weeknight meal.

Ingredients:

-2 or 4  1/2-inch-thick bone-in pork chops (depending on how many you are feeding)
-2 Tbsp flour (I used Wondra)
-1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
-12 ounces cremini or button mushrooms
-3 cloves of garlic
-1 bunch green onions
-1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
-2 Tbsp light sour cream

Sicilian Calamari with Italian "Mother Sauce" from Luca D'Italia

This recipe comes from Frank Bonanno's Luca D'Italia iCookbook.  The restaurant has been a local Italian favorite in Denver for years, so Frank picked his favorite recipes for the home cook and added pictures and videos to the interactive cookbook. I was recently invited to the restaurant with a few other food bloggers to taste some of the recipes and this was a favorite. It starts by making the "Mother Sauce", a wonderful red sauce simmered with a full bottle of chianti wine...yes please.  The sauce has unlimited uses but here it is ladled on top of calamari rings with capers and toasted bread crumbs. Much fancier than your fried calamari. 

Mother Sauce Ingredients:

-1 large onion

-1/2 stalk of celery

-1 bulb fennel

-1/2 lb carrots

-1 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp black pepper

-1/2 tsp chili flakes

-1 cup extra virgin olive oil

-6 cloves of garlic

-1 (750 ml) bottle of good quality chianti

-3 sprigs of basil

-2 sprigs of oregano

-1 sprig of parsley

-2 (16 ounce) cans San Marzano tomatoes

-1 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp black pepper

Sicilian Calamari Ingredients:

-1 lb calamari (I used tubes and tentacles)

-5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

-2 cloves garlic

-1 Tbsp crushed red chili

-3 Tbsp capers

-1/2 cup white wine

-1 cup Mother Sauce (ingredients above, or other good Marinara)

-1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

-2 Tbsp butter

-1 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp pepper

-1/2 cup toasted bread crumbs

-8 caper berries for garnish (optional)