Saltimbocca-ish Pork with Spring Veggies

A little brown butter and crispy sage leaves add lots of comforting flavor to this shoulder-season dinner

Some days I’m too tired or busy to make an elaborate dinner; other days, the anticipation of time spent in the kitchen cooking something delicious is what gets me through the rest of my afternoon. Last Thursday, for instance, I got an idea in my head about something I wanted to eat, and suddenly I couldn’t wait for dinner. The idea that popped to mind (no idea why) was that I could combine an old favorite, the saltimbocca my husband and I used to order at al di la, in Park Slope, Brooklyn with a big mix of spring vegetables. The rich flavors of the meat would be perfect for the cooler evenings we’ve been having, while the vegetables would have all the bright, fresh flavors I crave in spring.

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Since I don’t often eat veal and definitely don’t cook with it (young meat isn’t usually my cup of tea), I decided to take the idea of a saltimbocca—a thin piece of veal wrapped in prosciutto and pan-fried, with a savory sauce—and make it with pork. I asked the guys at the butcher counter at my market to slice up some boneless pork loin, cutting through the narrow edge so that I’d have much thinner slices of the loin, then I pounded it a bit with a meat mallet, to break up the fibers a bit. (While veal stays pretty tender when cooked, pork will be tough if you sear a thin piece enough to brown it, so I wanted to offset that texture a bit.) For the vegetables, I just grabbed everything that looked good—favas, English peas, leeks, some green garlic—and cooked it all together, adding the firmer items first, so they’d have longer to cook. A splash of water helped them soften in the pan.

The result was exactly what I was looking for. The seared meat was a little firm, as I expected, but the flavors were absolutely perfect, and I skipped a few steps to simplify things: instead of attaching the sage to the meat, as some recipes call for, and then making a sauce after with white wine (or madeira), I made a simple brown butter and fried the sage right in it as it cooked.

For the vegetables, I didn’t measure out the ingredients—and you don’t have to either. Just eyeball an approximate amount of each thing, based on how much the people you’re feeding will want to eat. You could also add asparagus or pea greens or any other spring green you like to this mix.

This combination would also be excellent with the addition of some roasted or boiled new potatoes, to add a starch, but for this meal I just did the meat and the vegetables—because that’s really all I was craving at the time.

Saltimbocca-ish Pork with Spring Veggies

Serves 4

For the Pork
3 slices pork loin, each cut through the thin edge 1–2 times to make even thinner slices*
All-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto
6–8 tablespoons unsalted butter
Small handful sage leaves

For the Veggies
1–2 cups shelled (but not yet peeled) fava beans
3–4 leeks
1 head/stalk green garlic
1–2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2–3 cup shelled English peas
Kosher salt

*I have the guys at the butcher counter in my supermarket do this for me; I just ask them to cut it as if they were preparing their veal scallopini.

1. Working with one piece of thin-sliced pork at a time, put the meat between to pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper and hit it with a meat mallet or a rolling pin to make it thinner (and, crucially, to break up the fibers of the meat a bit). Set the pork aside.

2. Put a small pot of water on to boil and make an ice bath in a medium bowl. Boil the favas until they are just tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer them to the ice bath to cool, then peel off the outer skins. Wash and thinly slice the leeks; mince the green garlic.

3. Add about ¼ inch of flour to the bottom of a shallow bowl and mix in a big pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Dredge each piece of pork in the mixture, coating both sides, then wrap each piece in a little strip of the prosciutto. (The prosciutto slices won’t pull apart evenly, so each piece will have a different amount, which is fine.) Set the pieces aside.

4. Cook the vegetables: Melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat in a cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven. Add the leeks and cook, stirring frequently, until they are starting to really soften, about 5 minutes. Add the shelled favas and peas to the pan and continue to cook for 2–3 minutes, then add a splash of water to the pan to help soften everything. Keep cooking (adding more butter or water as needed) until the peas are just about tender (the water should all boil away), then add the green garlic and cook for another minute or two, to soften its flavor. Season everything to taste, then turn off the heat and set the pan aside, covered, while you cook the meat.

5. In a separate pan, melt a bit of butter (enough to coat the pan) over high heat. Add as many of the prosciutto-wrapped pork pieces as will fit comfortably and let them sear until they are nicely browned on the bottom and the prosciutto is crispy; flip and sear on the other sides. Transfer the cooked meat to a large plate with a raised rim, then rinse or wipe out the pan. Repeat until all of the meat has been cooked.

6. Rinse out the pan one last time and set it over medium-low heat. Add 4 tablespoons of butter and once it has started to melt, add the sage leaves. Let the butter cook and the sage leaves sizzle until the milk solids have turned a nutty, light brown color; the sage should also be nice and crispy at this point. Pour the brown butter and sage over the cooked pork. (While the butter is browning, you could turn the heat on under the pan of vegetables to warm them, if you like.)

7. Serve the pork with a crispy sage leaf or two on top and the vegetables on the side.

From the Archives

With all the work of launching my cookbook, I haven’t had the time to do/write up any new interviews this past month, so I thought I’d resurface a favorite interview from a couple years ago. This story, from the amazing Deborah Kwan, is still one of my favorite interviews on the site, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely check it out:

Other California Recipes to Check Out

If you’re looking for another fun, delicious dinner, check out this Wings-Style Chicken Thighs with Herby Blue Cheese Salad from Hillary Dixler Canavan of The New Family Dinner newsletter or Nik Sharma’s Paneer and Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry. I have some delicious Cheesy Corn Scallion Fritters from Diana Yen’s new Firepit Feast cookbook over on the Snacking Dinners newsletter that are a great way to sneak a bit of summer flavor into your spring meal plans, and if you’re looking for something sweet, check out Carolynn Carreño’s Ultimate Carrot Cake With Orange Cream Cheese Frosting in the LA Times.

Photos: Georgia Freedman (2), Hillary Dixler Canavan for The New Family Table