My business takes me to Germany several times a year.  I usually end up starting or staying the entire time in Frankfurt.  I have a favorite small neighborhood restaurant that I religiously visit every time I am in the city for their excellent pork schnitzel dish.  You will find pork schnitzel on just about every casual German restaurant menu, especially their famous and aptly named Frankfurter style schnitzel.  The version I enjoy is a fried pork cutlet that is topped with fresh tomato and a heaping helping of Swiss mountain cheese like Gruyere.  It is all put under a very hot broiler to get the cheese brown, which is a little harder in a home oven.  They serve it over fried potatoes to make it a hardy meal.

I recreated this recipe at home in a less fattening fashion.  If you have an air fryer or deep fryer you can try it the German way.  I usually buy the thin-sliced loin cutlets found at Whole Foods, but you could also go to a butcher as ask for them to pound some larger cutlets for you.  The ingredient that makes this dish so delicious is the cheese melted on top.  In the recipe I prepared for you today I used a cave-aged Gruyere from Emmi called Kaltbach.  This Gruyere is aged in the famous Kaltbach Cave located in the Alpine Valley of Switzerland.  The cave is made of natural sandstone, and there is a small river that runs through it that allows for constant humidity that is kind to the aging of the cheese.

Ingredients

1 Lb. Pork Cutlets

Bread Crumbs

1-2 Eggs beaten

Fresh Tomato – sliced

1 Lb. cave-aged Gruyere cheese from Switzerland

For Roast Potatoes:

1 Lb. Idaho Russet Potatoes – diced in half-inch cubes

Olive Oil – I use Casas De Hualdo Manzanilla olive oil from Spain

Salt & Pepper to taste

Recipe:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Peel the russet potatoes and dice them into half-inch cubes, and place in a baking dish.  Top with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste, and toss to coat the potato pieces in the oil.  Place the potatoes in the oven for 45 minutes or until they are getting a little brown and soft when pricked with a fork.

While the potatoes are roasting, bread your pork cutlets.  Place about ¾ of a cup of fresh breadcrumbs in a bowl or plate, and beat 1-2 eggs in a bowl next to your breadcrumbs.  Dip each cutlet in egg and then roll in the breadcrumbs on both sides to coat.

Grate the Gruyere cheese and slice the fresh tomato, and set aside.

Preheat a non-stick pan over medium-high heat.  When hot, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan.  I use the Casas De Hualdo olive oil from Spain made with the Manzanilla olive, which has a medium flavor.

Place the cutlets in the skillet and brown on both sides.  When the cutlets are browned move them to an oven-proof baking dish or directly on dinner plates that are oven-proof.

Top the cutlets with the fresh tomato slices, and sprinkle with a heaping portion of grated Gruyere cheese.  Place the cutlets under the broiler on the high setting, and position close to the elements.  Broil for several minutes and melt the cheese.  It should bubble and sizzle a little, and hopefully get a little brown on top.

Remove the roast potatoes from the oven and arrange them on each dinner plate.  Top with the pork cutlet from under the broiler and serve.

I usually serve a salad with this meal and compliment it with a glass of Rose, which is great with the cheese and tomato.