Рецепт Pork Chops Scarpariello
Italian Immigrants bound for the US.
Notice the preponderance of men.
If
you frequent good old Italian-American Red Sauce restaurants, you may be well
acquainted with a close cousin of this dish: Chicken Scarpariello. Its origins, however, are not in Italy but in
an Italian American kitchen. Its name,
“Scarapiello”, means “Shoemaker”. If
your imagination takes you to an immigrant shoemaker coming home and making this
for dinner, you may not be far off base.
When Italians started immigrating to this country from 1890 on, very
often the men went on ahead leaving their wives and children behind until
they’d established themselves. Many
early Italian immigrants were barely educated and the early waves were full of
laborers and, less often, artisans like shoemakers. The Italian men latched onto ‘padrones’,
immigrants who had arrived a few years earlier.
These men handled lodging, savings and work, giving farms and factories
a constant labor supply. Interestingly,
around 50 percent of Italians who immigrated to this country from 1900 to 1920,
saved all the money they earned and re-patriated to Italy. These men never even learned the most
rudimentary English. They pined for
their homeland and did everything they could to duplicate the cooking of their
wives and mothers back in Italy.
“Scarpariello” is one example.
Little Italy NYC
When
Italians tried to duplicate Italian cooking in America, they tended to
incorporate outsized flavors. They’d
load in such staples as oregano and use unthinkable amounts of garlic, all to
conjure up the aromas and tastes of their Mamas’
kitchens. Overwhelmingly, these immigrants came from the
South of Italy, the Mezzogiorno and
even further south, from Sicily. Scarapiello incorporates fire-roasted bell
peppers and the heat of chile peppers, all to bring home the tastes of the
South. The biggest difference between
the way Italians ate in Italy to the way they ate in the States was in the
proteins. To this day, Italians consume
nothing like the amount of meat and poultry we do in the US. But once they arrived here, the land of milk
and honey meant the addition of chicken, beef and pork—signs, if nothing else,
of their prosperity in the new world.
Pork
Chops Scarpiello is a great way to introduce the palate to the pleasures of
chiles. They don’t overwhelm the dish
- because they are balanced with roasted bell peppers, lemon and parsley. It’s a really bright, summer-y dish that you
- can put together pretty much all year round. I did brine the pork in a mixture
- of ¼ cup of Kosher Salt to 1 quart of water for about four hours. I am not sure if this made any difference
- but, as the saying goes, it couldn’t hurt. If you want to go to the effort, you can, of
- course, roast your own bell peppers either in the broiler or over a gas
- burner. However, I found that jarred
- Fire-Roasted Peppers provide the flavor without the labor. The recipe calls for pork chops an inch
- thick. If yours are thicker, adjust the
- cooking time upwards and when the pork chops rest while you make the rest of
- the dish, put them on a baking sheet in a 350 degree oven to finish them
- off. The recipe serves 4. It is
- simplicity in itself to halve it. Here
- it is:
- Recipe for Pork Chops Scarpariello from Gourmet Magazine
- Serves 4. Takes 1 hour start to finish.
- 5 garlic
- cloves, finely chopped, divided
- 1 teaspoon
- finely chopped rosemary (dried or fresh)
- 3
- tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 4
- (1-inch-thick) bone-in pork chops (2 pounds total)
- 4 fresh
- red or green cherry peppers or 2 fresh red jalapeños (1/4 pounds total), finely
- chopped
- 1/2 cup
- reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 2
- tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon
- fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup
- coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- As
- mentioned, you can substitute the raw bell peppers for an equal amount of jarred
- Fire-Roasted Bell Peppers
- Roast
- bell peppers on racks of gas burners over high heat (or on rack of a broiler
- pan about 2 inches from heat), turning with tongs, until skins are blackened,
10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and tightly cover with plastic wrap.
Let stand, covered, 20 minutes. Peel, then halve lengthwise, discarding stems
and seeds. Cut peppers into 1-inch pieces.
While
peppers stand, mince and mash half of garlic to a paste with 3/4 teaspoon salt.
Combine with rosemary, 1 tablespoon oil, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Rub onto
chops.
Heat
remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large heavy nonstick skillet over medium-high
heat until it shimmers. Sauté pork, turning once, until pale golden in spots
and just cooked through, 4 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate and keep warm, loosely
covered with foil.
Add
roasted peppers to skillet with onion, remaining garlic, cherry peppers, and
1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, 5 to 6
minutes. Add wine and broth and boil until liquid is reduced to a glaze, about
5 minutes. Add meat juices from plate and remove skillet from heat. Add butter,
stirring until incorporated. Stir in lemon juice, parsley, and salt to taste
and spoon over chops.