Valentine's Dinner

I have a LOT of "favorite" recipes, as you may notice.  This is one of them.  I started making this when I got my Cooking Light cookbook, and I am still soooooo in love with it.  It's reasonably healthy, but a bit more of a splurge than, say, baked fish.  :)  I included my serving suggestions below as well.  Enjoy!

Pork Saltimbocca with Polenta and Green Beans



For the pic, I sliced the pork chop so you could see the stuffing.



Ingredients:

--1 pkg thin-cut pork chops (about 8 pieces)

--1 pkg fontina or fontinella cheese, grated (8 oz or so)

--1 pkg sliced prosciutto (to match the 8 chops)

--4 oz sage leaves

--Flour (I use whole wheat) to dredge chops

--4 tbsp olive oil

--Salt/pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Trim fat from chops.

2.  Lay chops flat.  Layer a slice of prosciutto across the pork chop.  Top one-half with crumbled or chopped sage leaves, then a tbsp of cheese.  Fold the chop over and secure with toothpicks.

3.  Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.  Dredge stuffed pork chops in flour.

4.  Heat oven to 350 deg F.  Grease pan.

5.  Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a skillet; when hot, brown 4 stuffed pork chops on all sides.  Repeat with remaining 4 pork chops.  When browned, place on pan and into preheated oven for 20 minutes to finish cooking.

For the side dishes, this is what I do while the pork chops are baking:

Green beans:

--Trim the beans and thinly slice the shallots.

--In a medium skillet, heat 1 tbsp olive oil.  Add shallots, green beans, and salt/pepper to taste; saute until tender.

Polenta:

--Add 3 cups water and 2 cubes chicken bouillon to pot.  Heat to boiling.

--Add 1 cup uncooked polenta; stir constantly until thick.  Be careful not to burn on bottom of pot. (Note - there is pre-cooked polenta in a little tube you can buy; if you do this, just follow those directions.  This is for raw polenta in a bag.)

To serve, ladle a spoonful of polenta on plate; add 1 or 2 pork chops on top.  Finish with a serving of the sauteed green beans.