Leftover pork? Who has to know?

I’ve got a dish to share with you that’s largely my father’s creation with some edits.

One of the best things about cooking a pork loin roast is that you get a ton of meat out of a single preparation. But a lot of food often means a lot of leftovers, and we all know that leftover pork or chicken or beef or turkey tends to dry up — even more so once you throw it in the microwave.

In this case, I prepared a center cut pork rib roast with some garlic, fennel seed, rosemary, and other spices the night before and had about half of it left afterward.

The next night was the perfect opportunity to create a dish that you’d swear wasn’t backed by leftover pork chops.

Pork and white wine sauce over pasta

This is a quick dish, especially when you’re using previously cooked meat — it also works with chicken and veal, especially saltimbocca.

Start by boiling enough water for as much pasta as you’ll need for your guests.

While your water is warming, take a large skillet over medium-high heat and add a little less than half a bottle of cheap, dry white wine, a pint of heavy whipping cream, a couple tablespoons to 1/4 cup of white flour and a few liberal tablespoons of dried parsley.

You can substitute light cream to reduce the fat content, but I wouldn’t go much lower. I tried this with skim milk once and it was a disaster.

Bring the sauce mixture to a boil, continually stirring it up, and lower the heat.

By now your water is boiling, so throw the pasta in. I like to salt the water before boiling, but it’s up to you. Use an interesting pasta — campanelle is a great choice with this dish.

Take another pan: skillet, saucepan, whatever and lightly coat it — seriously, just a little bit — with olive oil and throw in all your meat. If there are bones in it, leave it alone. Just throw it all in. Add some coarse salt, pepper, onion powder and a touch of mustard powder if you can. Lightly brown your pork over medium heat, turning it a few times.

You don’t want to re-cook the pork. This is just a better way than microwaving it. Warm it up, brown it a bit, spice it and it’s nice and warm and ready to eat.

Keep a loaf of crusty Italian bread handy. (A) you’ll want to rip off pieces of it to taste the sauce, and (B) it’s always good to have bread with a fine pasta meal.

Remember to keep stirring the sauce so it doesn’t clump or set. It’s an extremely delicious white sauce.

Put a few scoops of pasta on each plate. Put some meat on top and liberally cover it all with sauce. Add a slice of bread and some parsley, and you’ve got yourself a dish … a leftover dish.