Pork Chops, Modena Style

This is a great solution when you have pork chops that are thin or not great quality, as it braises them until they're tender enough to shed their bones and gristle. It's a Marcella Hazan recipe that we've only fiddled with a bit: she flours her chops, which sounds like an odd personal habit.

Take said chops and pat on white pepper, salt, and minced fresh sage, 4 0r 5 leaves per chop. Heat butter and olive oil in a wide pan, then sauté the chops a few minutes on each side until brown. As this is going on, chop up some fresh tomatoes (skinned, if you like - our garden tomatoes have ugly skins due to all this rain, but the insides are good), and throw them on top of the browned chops, maybe with a few more sage leaves if you have any. Cover and braise for an hour. The scent will be ambrosial, and so will the result. Reduce the sauce till thick, if necessary.

We actually managed to get some green beans out of the garden while they were still thin and tender, so we boiled them and served them unadorned, as a contrast with the rich tomato sauce.