Quick Pork Chops with Green Olives and Lemon

This was a super quick and easy weeknight meal that earned me a "wow what's the special occaison!?" from John when we sat down to eat on the back patio... definitely the best of both worlds.  Inexpensive, simple meals don't have to involve boring boneless chicken breasts OR pasta with jarred sauce, though we love both of those in moderation as well.

The ticket to this recipe is two good quality ingredients.  1) Local, organic thick cut pork chops and 2) preserved lemon.  Both could be found at your Whole Foods or specialty shop.  I'll get on my soapbox for a quick minute to stress the local, organic pork factor here.  Whole Foods has a great new color coding system that helps you understand exactly how local and how natural your options are.  As the butcher explained to me, happy pork is tasty pork (literally the muscles develop differently and the meat is more tender) and its worth a few extra dollars.  To put it this way, I got two beautiful thick cut chops for $8.00 which is frankly what you pay for a frozen pizza these days... 

Ingredients:

2 pork chops on the bone
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pinch sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced/grated
3/4 cup dry white wine
Skin of 1 preserved lemon, chopped
1/2 cup green olives with pits, use a pairing knife to slice the meat off around the pit
1 teaspoon total of fresh rosemary and/or fresh thyme
1 heaping cup of cherry tomatoes

(Confession... I didn't have preserved lemons in this case but I just happened to find olives with essentialy pickled lemon slices mixed in when perusing the olive bar at Whole Foods... I cut them into tiny pieces and they worked perfectly.)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Let the pork chops come to room temperature for 10-15 minutes and then season with kosher salt and black pepper on both sides.  Season also with some sugar on both sides.  This helps the chops develop a beautifully caramelized crust. 

Heat two tablespoons of the olive oil in a saute pan oven medium-high heat.  Brown the chops of both sides, 3 minutes per side.  Toss the garlic and half of the herbs into the pan around the pork and give it a little shuffle around for 1 minute. Pour the wine over the chops and add half of the lemon and olives to the pan as well. 

Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pan with a lid (or a cookie sheet works too), and simmer until the pork is tender (8-10 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 150 degrees).  Meanwhile, toss the whole cherry or grape tomatoes with one tablespoon of olive oil, the remaining half of the chopped herbs and some salt and pepper.  Roast in the oven on a cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes or until wilted and starting to burst.

Serve the pork chops with the pan juices spooned over the top and the extra lemon and olives.  Scoop some of the tomatoes onto the side.  The tang of the lemon and the brininess of the olives makes the dish feel really light and fresh.  The pork has a great crust and juicy interior with lots of great flavor from being cooked on the bone.  We paired this dish with a Rosenblum Zinfandel from California which was lovely.  (They say Zinfandel works well with grilled meats...)  A nice little Thursday dinner at home for under 30 minutes!