Recipe of the Day: Giada's Pork Chops with Fennel and Caper Sauce | Everyday Italian | Food Network

Now I'm gonna sear the pork chops just to give them more flavor and then the little brown bits at the bottom of the pan are really going to flavor the sauce. But in order to do that I want to start with a hot pan. There we go. You can start to hear a little sizzle. So we're going to let those cook just a few minutes on each side. About four minutes. And then we're going to finish cooking in the sauce. And that sauce is what's going to keep the pork chops really tender. And I'm just going to start with my shallots and my fennel which is sort of the base of this sauce. Slice up the fennel. Cut up the fronds as well. Just chop them up and very similar to an herb. Now time to take the pork chops off. We're just going to put them back on the platter where they came. Add a little bit more of all the shallots and the fennel all together. I'm going to lower the heat just a little bit to about medium. And add a little bit of salt. And the salt will bring out the natural juices, the natural sort of liquid in the fennel and the shallots. All right we're going to let that cook for another minute. And I'm going to add some parsley. It's time for a nice kick of flavor from the white wine. And that's about a half a cup. Now the white wine is going to sort of just pick up all of the little brown bits from searing the meat. And that is what's going to give the sauce tons of flavor. Just use the liquid from the wine to scrape up all those little bits. Smells so good. Now I'm using some canned tomatoes because it'll give the sauce some body which I love. And I'm just using some chopped tomatoes because it's only going to cook another 10 to 15 minutes. So whole tomatoes wouldn't have enough time to sort of break down. This will just make the cooking process a lot quicker. We're going to add the pork chops back into the sauce. Mess with them in between the fennel and the tomatoes. Kind of create a little bed. And it'll keep them nice and moist. Now these are going to cook another 10 to 15 minutes just until the pork is cooked through and the fennel is nice and tender. Now all I have to do is finish the sauce. Now it's a rustic trattoria recipe so you can just add the rest of the ingredients right on top. A couple tablespoons of capers. Then lemon zest. And I know this might sound a little strange like why would I be adding lemon zest on top of the pork chops? Well the lemon zest sort of brightens up all the flavors. It wakes up the fennel, the tomatoes, and it actually wakes up your taste buds on your tongue as well. Just zest half a lemon right on top. You can smell it. That fresh clean flavor. Right on top. Get all of that out. And more parsley. Just give it a quick little mix. Oh smells good. Perfect amount of sauce. Okay now ready to serve it. I'm just gonna lift the pan and make this easy on myself. Does that not look great?