Almost Italian

Even if you lack a plaster statue of Venus or a mural of Vesuvio over the Gulf of Naples, Pork Chops with Vinegar Peppers will quickly infuse your home with the scent so beloved by devotees of Boston’s North End Red-Sauce shrines. Put Ole Blue Eyes on the turntable and recreate that wise-guy ambiance right at home.

This preparation, quickly assembled from just a few ingredients, became popular during the late 1970’s.

Copyright © 2009, Skip Lombardi

Hailing from the same zip codes as Chicken Scarpariello, Pork Chops with Vinegar Peppers derive most of their distinctive and assertive flavor from the peppers and their pickling brine. While the peppers themselves (hot, not so hot, or simply sweet) are the subject of ongoing debate, their vinegar is sine qua non, which is old Roman dialect for “If you don’t have the peppers’ packing liquid—fuggheddabboudit.”

It turns out that many commercial producers use acetic acid rather than pure vinegar for their brine, so be sure to read the ingredients listed on your grocer’s offerings. Vinegar made from apples, other fruits, or grains has a much mellower taste than the harsher acetic acid.

The peppers most commonly used are sliced, pickled cherry peppers. It’s up to the cook to choose those with the desired amount of heat. While many a nonna makes her own pickled peppers—and may even use sweet, bell peppers—nearly all Italian-American restaurants use a commercial product with some degree of zest.

Over the past several years, some restaurants have switched to serving large, center-cut chops, an inch or more in thickness; others use brine-cured pork chops. But the original dish was made with thin chops, pounded even thinner. This was very likely to stretch the dish and to make the portions appear larger. Thinner chops not only absorb the flavors more rapidly and evenly, but require far less fuel to cook through.

A perusal of Italian-American restaurant menus from across the country suggests that Pork Chops and Vinegar Peppers are endemic to the restaurants of the Northeast, particularly Boston. In New Jersey, Tony Soprano has given this dish his okay and Carmela included it in The Sopranos’ Cookbook.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
3 – 4 Cloves garlic, peeled and finely diced
4 Pork chops approximately 3/8 in. thick
1/2 Cup pickling brine, from the peppers
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 Cup sliced vinegar peppers
Salt, to taste
4 Tbs. Flat-leaf Italian parsley, finely chopped

Preparation:

Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add enough olive oil to glaze the bottom of the pan and add the chopped garlic. Sauté for a minute or two, until it is aromatic.

Lower the heat to medium and add the pork chops to the pan. Brown lightly on both sides, cooking for a total of approximately 10 minutes. Season with pepper.

Add the pickling brine and lower the heat so the juices barely simmer. Cook for approximately 5 minutes longer and remove from heat.

Taste for salt. Depending on the saltiness of the liquid, you may not need any.

To serve:

Place one chop on each of four dinner plates and spoon any pan juices over the meat. Garnish with some of the sliced peppers and the parsley.

Traditionally accompanied by potatoes pan-fried in olive oil, the chops also pair well with boiled new potatoes.

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