Last weekend I took a crack at a recipe from Two Dudes, One Pan, a cookbook that I got a few years ago and never really took a close look at. I was flipping through it a few weeks ago and figured that this would be a good one to try. The recipe also calls for some of their classic marinara, which I’ll cover in a separate post, but as a standalone dish this one was surprisingly quick and easy; I came home and did this on a Monday night and was eating by 7pm.
The first, and messiest, part is searing the pork chops. The recipe called for four chops, but I could only either find them in 3 packs or 6 packs, so I went with three and stuffed them about as much as I could. I had already resigned myself to the notion that this was going to make a ridiculous mess out of my pan ahead of time.
After searing the pork chops on the stove for a few minutes, I covered them with some of the marinara and threw the whole pan into the hot oven and baked them at 500 degrees for about 15 minutes. I finally had a good justification for getting an All-Clad pan; the nice thick frying pan did wonderfully in the oven.
Prior to putting the pork chops in the oven, I made up some quick garlic bread by taking a loaf of soft French bread, slicing it lengthwise, adding butter, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning, then throwing the whole thing open-faced under the broiler for a couple of minutes. I wrapped it up in some foil to keep it warm and used the garlic bread to soak up the marinara that was left over at the end.
It’s not the prettiest dish, but it turned out well. Definitely worth making again.
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