Pork Scalopini Sandwiches With Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Caramelized Onions

In preparation for the change of season dinner at Courtney's house Jeffrey and I visited the Noe Valley Farmer's Market on Saturday morning.  You can walk away from this mini outdoor market having spent your entire paycheck, which is why we refer to it as the Gucci of farmer's markets.  As we strolled around the market trying to figure out what to make we stumbled upon Alston Farms.

Alston Farm's specialty is grass-fed beef, from Filet Mignon and porterhouse to tri-tip and ground beef.  The couple raises the animals in the most humane way possible and keeps them healthy and stress-free. By feeding cattle their natural food – grasses rather than grain, corn and other such industrially farmed foods which are foreign to cattle's normal diet – Alston Farms raises healthier animals and, in turn, provides its customers with better-tasting beef that has tremendous health benefits. Grass-fed beef has more CLAs (conjugated lineolic acids) and Omega-3s than standard, grain-fed beef. With more room to grow Alston Farm cattle does not have to rely on massive amounts of antibiotics like factory farms.

We chatted with the meat man for a while about what to get and both of us settled on pork scallopini, which we had never had before.  The end goal was to make a pork scallopini sandwich with onions and roasted cherry tomatoes and the result was fantastic.

Here is what you will need:

• 1 loaf of crusty Italian bread, cut into 1.5 inch thick pieces and toasted in the oven
• 6 pieces of pork scallopini
• 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 medium vidalia onions, sliced and caramelized
• 1 serving of roasted cherry tomatoes from this recipe

Toast the bread in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes and set aside.  Toss the pork with the olive oil, garlic, salt and peppers and let set for about 1/2 hour. In the meantime, prepare the onions by slicing and cooking over medium heat until golden brown.  You can also prepare the cherry tomatoes.

When you are ready to assemble the sandwiches pan fry the pork scallopini slices in a little bit of olive oil for about 3 minutes on each side or until done to your liking.

Place a piece of pork on a slice of bread and top with some tomatoes and onions.

Serve.

Comments

[Noe Valley, SF]

Great recipe!

As fans of the NV Market and Alston Farms we need to correct you on a couple minor points: Alston doesn't sell pork, and a woman is always the representative for Alston.

On alternate weekends to Alston, two guys staff the Prather Ranch booth. Also high quality, and they carry pork, beef, chicken, etc.

And yeah - good food is expensive. :)

[Andrew DeFep]

I LOVE grass fed beef. For all of you out there who are passionate about Sustainable Agriculture and Sustainable living as I am - join this incredible online social community at http://www.grassfedparty.com It's like the facebook for Sustainable Agriculture. Thanks for the awesome recipe.