Glazed Pork Chopswith brown butter gnocchi / apple spinach salad
We love this fall-inspired meal for the first week of October. Even though there are a few components to work with, you'll be rewarded with a guest-worthy meal that's packed with flavors and textures.
Smarts: Be sure to let the butter for the sauce heat until it turns a light golden brown. It gives the butter a rich, nutty flavor and earns it the title of "brown butter."
Ingredients
- Vinegar, balsamic - 2 1/2 Tbsp
- Maple syrup - 2 tsp
- Mustard, Dijon - 2 tsp
- Oil, olive - 5 Tbsp
- Pork chops, bone-in or out - 4
- Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp
- Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette (ingredients listed separately) - ~1/4 cup
- Foil - for cooking
- Shallots - 2 cloves, diced
- Sage, fresh - 4 leaves, thinly sliced
- Gnocchi, uncooked - 12 oz
- Butter - 3 Tbsp
- Lemon zest - 1/2 tsp
- Apples - 1, sliced
- Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette (ingredients listed separately) - ~1/4 cup
- Baby spinach - 5 oz
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Make vinaigrette - Whisk together vinegar, maple syrup, and mustard. Add olive oil while whisking. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Shallots / Sage - Prep as directed and combine. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Pork - Tenderize pork and season with some salt and pepper. (Can be done 1 day ahead)
- Apples - Slice apples.
Make
- Bring a stock pot of salted water to a boil. Cook gnocchi according to package directions. Drain.
- Put vinaigrette (portion for salad) in a large mixing bowl. Top with apples and spinach and set aside. Wait to toss until just before serving.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add cooking oil and then place pork chops on heated oil. Sear on both sides.
- Pour vinaigrette (portion for pork) over pork and cover with foil. Lower heat and cook until pork reaches 145F / 63C, 2 to 3 minutes for thin pork chops or 5 to 6 minutes for thicker cuts.
- Move pork to a cutting board and let rest, covered, for 5 minutes. Return skillet to low-medium heat (leave any remaining vinaigrette in the pan).
- To heated skillet add butter and then shallots and sage. Saute until butter starts to brown slightly and sage is turning crisp.
- Add gnocchi and saute until coated in butter-sage sauce. Remove from heat and season with a pinch of salt. Zest lemon over top.
- Slice pork and serve with gnocchi. Toss salad to serve on the side.
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
This meal has 44 reviews
Everyone enjoyed this but it wasn't super filling. Ate the whole 4 portions between 3 of us. Added extra beans to the gnocchi and feta to the salad.
Loved everything about this meal! Prepping over the weekend definitely made it cooking day much easier. Unfortunately, I learned that my husband is not a fan of the smell of vinegar .... he ate the pork chops but nothing else. I ate everything and loved it!
Salad and dressing was wonderful. I did add some sunflower seeds and dried cranberries. The pork chops were ok, but when I split the dressing, I think I had more oil in the part put aside for the pork, so it did not seem to glaze the chops that well. The gnocchis were great in the brown sauce. Would make again. But make dressing separately.
We loved this meal! I used Cauliflower Gnocchi from Trader Joe’s instead of regular pasta. I cooked them by defrosting in the microwave, patting dry, then frying in the cast iron. After they were crispy I tossed it in the sage butter. So yummy!
This smelled amazing when cooking, but then ended up being pretty tasteless and dry. I also over-zested a bit, so the lemon came through as the primary flavor in some bites. The salad was yummy, but pretty plain. I would add Gorgonzola and sliced almonds to the salad.
Loved the pork and gnocchi. The salad could have used something more.