Pork Burritos (and hidden chard)

I've been busy this fall -- cooking a lot, but too busy to write about it.  One thing I've been doing a lot of lately is trying to make a meal out of the items I already have in the house, rather than running to the grocery store to buy more ingredients.   Not only is it better for our wallets (in this ridiculous economic environment), but it's kind of fun to MacGyver a meal together.  

All day today I've been trying to figure out what to make.  I had an entire package of diced pancetta left over from a recipe last week.  I also had some red chard from my CSA delivery.  I knew that I couldn't get my family to eat chard on its own (it's green, and therefore suspect), so I knew it had to be hidden in something else.  Pancetta and greens are a great side dish, but not something from which you can make an entire meal.  Then it hit me:  burritos!  What better way to hide things from your kids than to wrap them in a tortilla and cover them with cheese and sour cream!  So, I decided to make pork burritos -- all I needed to buy was the ground pork. 

Actually, I should note here that I don't really buy ground pork.  My father-in-law was a butcher who ran several Petrini's markets (if you are from Northern California, you probably know Petrini's -- my mother-in-law is a Petrini).  He told me that he is generally suspect of pre-packaged ground meat in the supermarket; he claims that grinding up pork is a way for markets to easily get rid of pork that is either low quality or nearing the end of its shelf life.  So instead, my mother-in-law recommended that I buy boneless ribs and grind them myself in the food processor.  This actually works great and is really easy!  

All I had to do was saute the pancetta, chard, and pork together, put them in a soft, warm tortilla, add some cheese, sour cream, and roll the entire thing up.  Yum!   Obviously this is a versatile recipe and you can make plenty of substitutions.  You can use almost any hearty green like regular chard or mustard greens.  And instead of pancetta, you can use Canadian bacon or just regular bacon, if you like.  But don't be tempted to skip the bacon just because the recipe already calls for pork.  The pancetta not only provides some flavorful fat in which to saute the greens, but it also adds some nice texture to the pork.  And really, doesn't everything taste better with bacon?

Pork Burritos

6-8 servings

1 1/2 pounds boneless pork ribs

4 oz diced pancetta

1/2 cup of chopped red chard, ribs removed (or similar hearty green)

2 tablespoons of green salsa, plus more to taste

tortillas

shredded Jack cheese

sour cream

-- Heat broiler

-- Chop pork into 1-2 inch cubes.  Grind in food processor

-- Remove pork from food processor and add chard.  Chop until diced

-- Heat a saute pan over medium high heat, and add pancetta.  Cook until it starts to crisp, about 5 minutes

-- Add chard to pan and mix in with pancetta.  Cook until the two are well incorporated, about 2 minutes

-- Add pork to mixture, and cook until meat is cooked through

-- Add green salsa to mixture

-- Place tortilla for each person on top rack of oven.  Let sit under broiler until soft, about 10 seconds.  Don't let them sit too long, or the tortilla will get crispy and become unwrappable.

-- Put tortilla on plate, 1-2 tablespoons of pork mixture (depending on the size of your tortilla), add cheese, sour cream, and more salsa, if desired.

-- Fold and roll tortilla

Note that you probably won't need to add any salt to this recipe.  The pancetta is generally pretty salty.  Taste the meat after you add the green salsa to the pan.  Add salt to taste, if necessary.