Peace, Love, and Pasta: Simple and Elegant Recipes from a Chef’s Home Kitchen by Scott Conant

Author:Scott Conant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2021-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

PORK SCHNITZEL

In 1992, I left the States for an internship not in Italy, but in Germany, at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich. I knew nothing about Germany or German cooking, but the internship paid, and I figured it was closer to Italy than New York was. It was a challenging—and fascinating—time to be in Germany (the Berlin Wall had come down just two years before), and the restaurant kitchen was a microcosm of the era, a real melting pot of tensions and grievances and the uneasiness of change. (Not that there weren’t moments of levity—like the time Michael Jackson came in to eat and we had to figure out what to cook for his pet monkey.) It was an eye-opening experience, both culturally and culinarily, for me—the food I was introduced to there wasn’t the food I had dreamed of cooking, but it had soul and lacked pretention, which appealed to me. Plus, there was schnitzel.

I’m a big fan of meat cutlets of any kind, and schnitzel is no exception. Personally, I like the texture of cornstarch more than flour, so that’s what I dredge my schnitzel in. This recipe also works with chicken; when I do that, I use the meat of skinless, boneless chicken thighs, which I think have so much more flavor than chicken breasts.

Serves 6

3 cups (240 g) panko

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus 10 whole leaves

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano

¼ cup (25 g) finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

6 (7-ounce/200 g) pork loins

4 large eggs

1 to 2 teaspoons finely chopped Calabrian chile

1 cup (130 g) cornstarch

Kosher salt

¼ to ½ cup (60 to 120 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

12 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

6 sprigs rosemary

6 slices lemon, plus lemon wedges for serving

12 fresh basil leaves, torn

Spaetzle (this page), or grain of your choice, for serving

Special equipment: Meat mallet

Combine the panko, chopped parsley, chopped oregano, and cheese in a bowl and set aside. If your pork loins are on the bone, remove the loins from the bones. Then remove and discard the silver skin.

Place each loin between two pieces of plastic wrap and, using the spiky side of a meat mallet, pound out the meat firmly but gently, on both sides, rotating the meat as you go, until each loin is about ⅜ inch (1 cm) thick.

Put the eggs and the Calabrian chile in a bowl that will be large enough to dip each loin into and mix well with a fork. Spread the cornstarch on a baking sheet and spread the panko mixture on a second baking sheet.

Sprinkle salt on both sides of each pork loin, then place one piece of meat in the cornstarch, coating both sides. Shake off the excess starch.

Dip the loin into the egg mixture, making sure all the cornstarch is covered by the beaten egg, then shake off the excess liquid. Place the loin on the breadcrumb mix and cover the top with more crumbs, then, using the palm of your hands, push the panko mixture deeper into the loin with a fair amount of force.

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