Today we’re preparing a delightful winter dish - breaded porkchops baked with a fresh tomato, squash, and onion sauce, which we'll be toping with a layer of mozzarella and parmesan cheese. The end result is a warming, hearty meal, that is perfect for chilly fall and winter nights.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

1) A Wintery Delight. Hardy and warming, while being flavorful and pleasantly complex, today’s breaded porkchops are a seasonal delight. As a nice bonus, the accompanying sauce is simple to put together.

2) Layers of Fun. I know this might sound silly, but this recipe is just so much fun to prepare and eat. From the melted mozzarella, to the hardy sauce, to the pork chops themselves, this recipe combines layers of flavor, and makes you feel like a true gourmand in the process.

3) Ripe for Experimentation. Whether you want give the sauce a spicy kick with some chili peppers, or try out different cheeses, or a different meat (breaded beef would pair beautifully here!), or really anything you can think of to modify today’s recipe to meet your preference, today’s recipe is intuitive and simple to experiment with.

Ingredient Notes and Tips

1) The Grating Cheese. One of the most enduring ‘Food Myths’ is that all grating cheese is more or less ‘the same.’ While they are indeed largely interchangeable in recipe’s like today’s, there are some noteworthy differences. To start, Parmesan is simply American produced Parmigiano Reggiano – both are produced from cow’s milk, and both are aged for two or more years, which imparts the cheeses with what many describe as a ‘sharp’ and ‘salty’ flavor. Parmigiano Reggiano ‘must’ be produced in Italy due to EU and Italian trademark laws. So, at least in this case, the two grating cheeses are ‘basically’ the same, although Reggiano is considerably pricier, and regarded to be of generally higher quality overall. Pecorino Romano, by contrast, is produced from sheep’s milk, and is only aged for less than a year, giving it a slightly less sharp and considerably less salty flavor. Despite these differences, these three cheeses are often used interchangeably, and once they’ve been melted over sauce, or baked into something like a lasagna, few if any palates would ‘really’ be able to tell the difference unless these cheeses were used in positively ‘silly’ amounts.

Bonus Fact: Locatelli is ‘not’ a variety of cheese, it is instead an Italian brand of Romano.

2) Fresh Basil vs Dried – and possible substitutions. As with most herbs, fresh basil and its dried counterpart are ‘usually’ but not always safe substitutions for one another. I’m using fresh basil today to achieve a ‘bright licorice’ or ‘anise-like’ flavor – but both of these flavors are entirely absent in dried basil, where a slightly ‘mintier’ flavor dominates. Furthermore, fresh basil has powerful aromatics that are reminiscent of a bright summer garden in full bloom, whereas dried basil boasts an earthier, vaguely ‘darker’ herbal aromatic profile.

Substitutions: Fresh oregano. However, this is not an exact substitution, as oregano has a flavor that’s markedly less ‘bright,’ as well as somewhat more ‘herbal,’ whereas basil is simply ‘fresher’ on the palate.

3) Plain vs Seasoned Breadcrumbs. Italian-Style Breadcrumbs are probably the most common type of breadcrumbs on American store shelves after ‘regular’ breadcrumbs, but what’s the difference ‘really?’ Basically, they’re ‘regular’ breadcrumbs but with a combination of dried basil, oregano, and parsley, along with a copious amount of salt and black pepper – and that’s pretty much it, though some brands may include red pepper as well. Oddly, Italian-style breadcrumbs are rarely toasted in olive oil, and even when they are, the olive oil is usually a cheap ‘light’ olive oil. For today’s purposes, since we’re seasoning everything ourselves, we’re sticking to plain.

Substitution: If you only have seasoned breadcrumbs on hand, don’t worry, those will work just fine.

4) Yellow Squash – No, these are ‘not’ Zucchini. While yellow squash and zucchini are often mistaken as the same thing, the truth is that while zucchinis are in fact a type of squash, they are ‘not’ the same as yellow squash. Let me explain. To start, squash are a species of plant found within the gourd family. All squash are divided into summer and winter squash. Summer squash are harvested while still immature, making the rind tender and edible. The most popular examples of summer squash include things like crookneck squash, straightneck squash, zucchini, and today’s yellow squash. Winter squash include things like butternut squash, acorn, Atlantic giant, and, of course, pumpkins. So, the primary difference comes down to when they’re harvested. Harvesting squash early means outer exterior is soft and edible, harvesting them late means the outer rind is hard and inedible. That said, yellow squash and zucchini are indeed quite similar, and can generally be prepared in the same way. Both have a spongy interior, and a soft, edible rind. While zucchini are generally deep green, immature zucchini can be golden yellow. While zucchini are generally uniformly straight, yellow squash has a bulbous bottom that tapers upward.

Substitute: Given the above, would it come as any surprise if I said you could substitute zucchini for today’s yellow squash?

Selecting Quality Pork

When we think about selecting ‘quality meat’ we really usually only think of ‘beef,’ whereas when we think about selecting chicken or pork we tend to simply buy whatever happens to be eye-appealing or with our favorite brand or with whatever happens to be on sale.

The truth is, however, that we should really be just as picky about the pork we eat as we are with beef.

With that in mind, here are some tips for selecting quality pork.

1) The Color – Pinker is Better. As with other meats, you want to pay close attention to the color. If the pork is ‘grey’ or ‘whitish,’ that means a lot of its juices have either ‘set,’ due to being left out for too long, or that they have simply drained away somewhere on its journey to your market shelf. By contrast, pork that is pinkish or ‘rosy red’ is still full of free-flowing juice, and will provide you with a tender, juicier piece of meat, and a more flavorful experience overall. This is also an indication that the meat hasn’t been sitting on a shelf, and of better-quality handling over all.

2) Marbling – The Skinny on Fat. The truth here is that if you want a ‘good’ tasting piece of meat, you need a piece with a decent amount of fat. The fat is where the flavor is. When the pork is cooking, the more ‘fat’ that reduces into the pan for the meat to cook in, and that ‘absorbs’ into the meat itself, the better tasting the pork will be – and the juicier it will be. You want a nice ‘rind’ of fat on the outside of the meat, as well as ‘speckled’ within the meat itself.

3) The Color of the Fat. The fat should be white. Period. Specs of ‘red’ or ‘black’ or traces of grey are a nonstarter. Those are signs of decay and poor handling.

4) Bones are White. If buying ‘bone-in’ pork, and this applies to all cuts with bones, you want a ‘white’ or ‘off-white’ bone. Dark bones are sign of encroaching decay, meaning the pork has been sitting out on the shelf much too long.

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