Pork Scallopine with Marsala

This recipe comes from my dad, who recently shared some of the ways that he likes to prepare that most inexpensive (yet still tasty) of meats, pork. He often turns them into scallopine, dusting them with flour and cooking them up with olive oil, butter, and a little something to deglaze the pan and give you some sauce.

Here's how he put it:
You can buy boneless pork cutlets (usually loin) for about $3-4 lb., sometimes less. The cutlets are about 1/4 thick. You simply pound them to make scalloppine, lightly dust them in flour, then fry them quickly in a little butter and olive oil with s&p [salt and pepper], move them to a platter, deglaze the pan with some Marsala (a dry sherry would work too), return the meat to the pan, and serve them up.

And that's pretty much it. It's a similar (almost identical) recipe to Lemon Chicken, one of my favorite dishes. You use Marsala/dry sherry instead of lemon, and pork instead of chicken. It's even more similar to lemon chicken the way I made it (confession time!) - I didn't have Marsala or dry sherry, so I just went ahead and used lemon anyway. But I've had it with the Marsala, and that's how I'd recommend making it.

I served mine with some pearled couscous with basil from a box (ahhhh!). This whole meal, which cost about $6.00 and was enough for dinner and full leftovers (or, would feed two for dinner), took about 20 minutes to make from prep to serving. And it tastes great. So there's really not a good reason not to make it!

Roughly 1 lb boneless pork loin, sliced into 1/4 inch scallopine
A plate of flour for dusting
A few pours of olive oil
1/2 tbsp butter
Salt
Ground black pepper
1/4 cup or so Marsala or dry sherry (or, if you must, juice from 1 lemon)

Line up your scallopine next to one another. Cover in wax paper and pound with the bottom of a small saucepan. Dust the scallopine in the flour, shaking off the excess. Set aside.

Heat olive oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat until the butter melts and bubbles. Add a little salt and pepper. Add the scallopine in batches, turning each piece once so that each piece cooks through. They cook really, really fast. Seriously. Remove and do the next batch.

When you're done cooking the scallopine, add the Marsala to the pan - it will sizzle like mad - and scrape up the oil and any trimmings from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon or spatula (leave them in there, just stir it up a little so it makes just a little sauce) - i.e., deglaze the pan. Turn the heat down and add the pork back to the pan, stirring around to coat. Serve!