Italian porchetta is a special dish of spit-roasted pork flavored with herbs, fennel and garlic. It’s delicious, but much too involved for a weeknight dinner. To give pork chops the same flavor profile with less work, we narrowed the ingredients to those best suited for searing on the stovetop.
In this recipe from our book “Tuesday Nights Mediterranean,” which features weeknight-friendly meals from the region, we blend together salt, black pepper, rosemary, fennel seeds and red pepper flakes in a spice grinder, then rub the seasoning blend on bone-in center cut pork chops before searing them until well browned.
Once the pork chops are cooked through, the pan is deglazed with a bit of water to release the flavorful browned bits. The liquid is enriched with butter and flavored with lemon juice to create a simple bright and rich pan sauce for finishing. A fresh fennel and herb salad balances the richness of the meat.
Don’t discard the fennel fronds if your bulb has them attached. Chop about ¼ cup and add them to the bowl with the fennel. When shopping, try to choose chops that are close in size so they cook at the same rate.