Best of the Best, best recipes from the best cookbooks of the year

Food and Wine Magazine wades through the over 1000 cookbooks published each year to find the very best. This one, published in 1998, is one of my favorites. It includes everything from top shelf gourmet to everyday dishes everyone would enjoy. For each cookbook featured in this volume, the reader is told why that particular one was chosen.

The recipe I chose to share with you here comes from Sheila Lukins' USA Cookbook. Sheila is a former Silver Palate collaborator. In putting this cookbook together, she spent three years traveling around the country, sampling chowder in New England, salsa in the Southwest, and the specialties of the house at high-toned restaurants and roadside eateries all over. The result is a collection as sprawling as America.

Larry Smith's Mother's Pork Chops

4 pork loin chops, 1 inch thick
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon dried sage leaves, crumbled
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 onions, sliced thin
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage

Sprinkle the pork chops on both sides with salt and pepper. Rub well with the dried sage.

Heat olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, and brown the pork chops on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Reduce heat to low and cook the chops uncovered, turning once, until cooked through, about 20 minutes. Transfer the chops to a plate and set aside.

Add the onions to the skillet, raise the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring, until wilted, about 10 minutes. Add the wine and cook 5 minutes more, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the skillet. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in the chopped fresh sage. Return the chops to the skillet and bury them in the onions. Cook until warmed through, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately.