Pork chops stuffed with chard and pine nuts

I am been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks now.

Various things have kept me from do so.

Mostly just laziness, I guess. You know, looking back on it.

Anyway... Here you go:

I like this dish because the chard is unexpected. And within the chard, the pine nuts are unexpected. Plus it is pretty easy and very satisfying when you want big comfort food.

Pork chops stuffed with chard and pine nuts

serves 4

3 tablespoons pine nuts

12 ounces Swiss chard, washed and dried and torn or cut into pieces

olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

Salt and pepper

4 pork loin chops, each 1 1/2 inches thick (I used boneless)

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup dry white wine

First, toast the pine nuts.

To do this, put pine nuts in a small sautee pan and heat on high.

Let pine nuts start to brown, stirring frequently.

These will go fast, so do not leave them unattended. They can burn quickly.

You just want them to turn a rich, golden brown.

Once they are done, remove them from the hot pan immediately and set aside.

Next, make the chard.

In a large sautee pan, heat 2 teaspoons olive oil on medium high heat and add chard and garlic.

Cook, stirring frequently, until chard is wilted. Turn off heat and stir in pine nuts. Season with salt.

Set chard aside to cool a bit.

Finally, it's time to prepare the pork chops.

Cut a pocket in the side of each chop. Do not cut all the way through.

Fill pockets with chard, gently press closed. Secure with toothpicks.

Season chops with salt and pepper.

Wipe excess liquid out of pan used to cook chard.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat.

Add chops to the pan and cook until browned on one side, then flip them.

I removed the toothpicks at this time because my chops seemed to have set up enough at this point.

Once they are browned on both sides, add broth and wine to the pan.

Heat liquid to boiling then reduce heat and cook, covered, for about an hour at low heat.

When chops are done, remove from pan.

To make sauce, heat liquid on high heat and boil until liquid reduces to about 3/4 to 1 cup.

To serve, remove tooth picks if you did not do this in the browning stage, plate chops and pour sauce over them.

Sorry, my pictures of the finished product were not good. So you get a shot from the browning process, just before I added the broth and wine to simmer them.

I served these with the roasted tomatoes and mushroom-sage bread pudding.