Author Notes

I recently took it upon myself to try to reproduce completely one of my fiancé’s favorite restaurant meals: pork schnitzel, roasted potatoes and German cucumber salad. Thinking leftovers, I bought 6 pork cutlets. The meal itself was a success, but when the time came to revisit the leftovers, I was inspired by our pork sandwich theme to think outside of the box –- rather than simply reheat all three elements and serve a replica of the original meal, I decided to go rogue with a port cutlet sandwich.



After pondering various textures and flavors, I decided to try combining the garlicky punch of aioli with the sweetness of fresh basil to complement the meaty crunch of the pork and keep the sandwich from being dry. I gently reheated the cutlets in the oven to crisp them up again, slathered some sandwich rolls (nothing fancy, as I wanted something springy and soft to counterbalance the texture of the cutlets) with the aioli and laid the pork on top. I wanted some greens, so I added some baby arugula, and then for a bit of heat and acid, I sliced up some peppadew peppers and scattered them over the arugula. Voila! A sandwich was born. And from my fiancé’s empty plate, I was able to assume at least some level of success with this one. —Merrill Stubbs