Pork and Asparagus Alfredo

You can find a printable version of this recipe at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.

Last week, one of my Twitter followers mentioned this recipe for Pasta with Asparagus and Bacon from historical romance author Vanessa Kelly. It looks incredible, and I’ve had asparagus on the brain ever since. I’m going to make that recipe exactly one of these days, but for today, I decided to come up with something original, inspired by Vanessa.

I started out with the idea of fresh asparagus, and nothing past that. I found some nice pork chops at the store, so I thought I would cook them simply with a little salt and pepper, and then serve the asparagus on the side. Unfortunately, by the time I finished working for the day, it was too late to start the pork chops. They were about an inch thick, and cooking them as I’d planned would push dinner too late.

One of the things I love best about asparagus is that it cooks so quickly. The flipside to that is that it overcooks very easily. I wanted to create something that would allow the asparagus to keep a nice bit of crunch.

Why not cook the pork quickly, too? So I sliced my chops thin and cooked them in a heavy-bottomed pan. In order to resist the urge to flip them too soon, I snapped the asparagus into one-inch chunks while the pork cooked. There’s no need to use a knife to cut the asparagus. When it’s fresh, you can snap it apart, a very satisfying activity. If it doesn’t snap easily, it’s not fresh enough. Because I didn’t move the pork around in the pan, it got nicely browned.

The Alfredo sauce isn’t a true Alfredo sauce, but it’s really delicious and fast to make. I hope you love it as much as I do! If you like, you can serve this over pasta. I chose to serve it on its own with a salad on the side. Delicious!

Recipe: Pork and Asparagus Alfredo

1T butter
3 T olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T onion, minced
1/8 t nutmeg
½ t black pepper
8 oz sour cream (low fat or fat free is fine)
½ C milk
1 C parmesan cheese, shredded
1 lb pork, sliced thin (about 2 boneless pork chops)
1 lb asparagus, cut in 1” chunks

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter with one tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds, until onion is translucent. Add the spices, sour cream, milk, and cheese. Lower the temperature to low and warm the mixture, stirring frequently, melting the cheese.

Heat a heavy-bottomed sauté pan on medium heat. Place about half of the pork in the pan, so that the meat is not overcrowded. Cook until brown, then flip over, about 1-2 minutes per side. Set aside the meat, cook the rest, and then set that aside, as well. Put the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil in the pan and break up the browned bits that are stuck on the bottom of the pan. Add the asparagus chunks and sauté for about three minutes.

Return the pork to the pan and add the Alfredo sauce. Toss to coat everything well.