Roasted Pork Bites with Red Pepper Sauce

I haven’t been using pork much lately and I don’t know why.

I love pork. It’s ranked right up there with chicken in terms of meat entrees. I’ll choose a pork chop or pork roast over a burger or meatloaf anyday.

I spotted a massive pack of pork chops (6 pounds!!!) at Costco the other day for just $14 and bought it. You can’t go wrong with that price! Pork is typically very affordable, even when there’s price wars on beef and chicken.

The chops were regular, boneless loin chops so they needed a lot of work to make sure they didn’t dry out. I marinated them in a simple marinade (olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, garlic) and then roasted them for less than 10 minutes to achieve that desired tenderness. Remember, you do not need to cook pork to death. Just make sure its internal temperature hits 145 degrees and you’re golden.

I served this with a sort-of Romesco sauce. Romesco is a Spanish sauce usually made with tomatoes, garlic and toasted almonds. For this sauce, I used roasted red bell peppers, almonds, and a creamy mixture of milk and breadcrumbs. Since the pork had light seasoning, the sauce had to be very powerful in flavor—and I think I achieved that.

This dinner really came together in a flash. The hardest part was taking my food processor down from a high cabinet to make the sauce. If you’re looking for something out of the box to make for dinner, make this recipe!

Enjoy!

Roasted Pork Bites with Red Pepper Sauce

• Servings: 3-4
• Time: 20 mins
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Simple roasted pork chops with a smoky red pepper sauce.

Ingredients

• 4-6 boneless pork loin chops
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt & pepper

For the Red Pepper Sauce:

• 1/2 cup roasted red peppers, drained
• 1 TBS. almonds
• 2 TBS. bread crumbs
• 2 TBS. milk
• 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

Directions

1. Place pork chops in a large freezer bag with garlic, salt, pepper, lemon juice, garlic powder and olive oil. Seal and shake until chops are well coated. Refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.
2. Make the Red Pepper Sauce: in a blender of food processor, blitz the red peppers with almonds until fine. Pour in bread crumbs, milk and smoked paprika. Pulse until smooth sauce is formed.
3. Roast the pork: remove chops from marinade and cut into bite-size pieces. Place in a large baking dish. Roast, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees.
4. Serve pork with red pepper sauce.