Balsalmic Pork with Shallots

Happy Project Runway premiere day, everyone! Because tonight holds not one, but two, hours of delightful Tim Gunn-iness, we wanted to make extra sure to prepare a low-maintenance dish. So it's with pleasure that we bring you Balsalmic Pork with Shallots, compliments of Cooking Light's March 2009 issue.

We decided to pair this with two super-quick sides: roasted red potatoes and broccoli. So to start, we halved 14 size-C red potatoes and placed them cut side up on a foil-lined baking sheet. We drizzled the potatoes with about 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, then sprinkled them with 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt, 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper, and one little surprise: 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder. The potatoes went in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees and were done just as we were finishing up our sauce.

For our vegetable serving, we used a package of frozen broccoli, prepared as directed. Just four minutes in the microwave and we had a healthy dose of vitamin C to go with the iron in our pork.

One great thing about this dish is that you need very few fresh ingredients: just the pork and shallots, and the rest are all pantry staples.

The pork is pan-fried in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil. Even if you're tempted to do something other than salt and pepper it, try to restrain yourself; the shallot sauce packs some great flavor.

Speaking of the shallots, we bought only 5, thinking 8 was surely an overestimation. Now that we've tried it, we should've bought 15! When they're carmelized, the shallots have a light, slightly sweet flavor that left us wanting to smother every bite of pork in them.

The bulk of the time in this recipe comes from preparing the sauce: 18 of the 24 minutes cooking time. Because the sauce calls for low heat and infrequent stirring, you can walk away for a few minutes to straighten up the kitchen, check on the potatoes, and nuke that broccoli. And when you're all done, just look at the deliciousness that will be waiting for you.

We give this recipe an A on ease of preparation, an A+ on taste, and really, we just can't wait for the leftovers!