Pork chops with fancy parsley

Or “Pork chops piquante,” as Craig Claiborne calls it in The New York Times Cookbook. Since pork fat is the new healthy fat, we bought some chops recently for the first time in years. And this is how we cooked them. The fancy parsley topping adds some greenery and extra flavour to the dish.


Pork source: pasture-raised pork can be obtained from The Piggy Market on Richmond Road. Specifically ask for the pastured variety.

Parsley: after making a recipe, if you have no immediate use for the rest of your fresh Whitsend parsley, freeze it.

Serves 2

2 thick loin pork chops
1 Tbsp butter
¼ c. chopped onions
¾ c. tomato purée (we used passata, i.e. bottled strained tomatoes)
½ c. dry white wine
Pinch of thyme
½ bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

¼ c. finely chopped fresh parsley
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp. grated lemon rind

Brown the pork chops on both sides in the butter in a frying pan (we used an old enamelled cast iron dutch oven). Transfer chops to a platter and keep warm. Pour off most of the fat.

To the fat remaining in the frying pan add the onions and cook briefly, stirring until the onions are wilted. Add the tomato purée, wine, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper.

Return the chops to the frying pan and turn them in the sauce. Cover (with a cookie sheet if necessary) and cook for 1 hour on lowish heat, basting occasionally, until the chops are fork tender. 

Mix the parsley, garlic and lemon rind together and sprinkle over the chops.