Repertoire

Pork scaloppine ushers in fall cooking.

The auctioneer talked like, well, an auctioneer: so quickly that his words ran together. When I raised my paddle I wasn’t sure exactly how much I’d spent, just that I was now the owner of a 268pound pig. The pig was led through the ring before us by Emma Stanley, the 13yearold who’d raised her. Stanley’s a member of 4H, a learning-by-doing program that educates kids in everything from animal science to handcrafts to leadership.

This is a cooking column, though, so you know where this is headed. I didn’t buy this pig as a pet, but instead with plans to stock my freezer with pastureraised meat while simultaneously supporting local agriculture and 4H ( the four H’s stand for Head, Heart, Hands and Health). My kids, who attended the auction alongside me, understood this even as they scratched the pigs behind their ears and leaned their faces against the fuzzy flanks of steer bound for the auction block, destined to become steak.

When you get an upclose view of the animal you’ll be eating and the confident kid who raised it, it’s additional encouragement not to waste food. So I began with this recipe for panfried pork scaloppine with a plum compote, which is quick enough for a weeknight and a gateway recipe for fall. The sweettart compote, the fruit stewed with coins of ginger, red onion and bay leaf, can be made with the elongated deep purple Italian prune plums that you find at the market now, or with regular red plums, which turn the sauce a brilliant fuchsia. I find it’s especially easy to cut slices from a boneless pork loin and pound them into scaloppine, thin slices that cook in minutes in a hot pan. But you can use butterflied pork chops or even slices from a pork tenderloin — the key is just to pound the meat thinly and evenly so it’ll cook quickly, which, incidentally, is also a great way to relieve stress.

While you’re making this simple supper, you might even think of the 4H pledge, which, these days, seems especially useful.

I pledge …

My head to clearer thinking My heart to greater loyalty My hands to larger service, and

My health to better living For my club, my community, My country, and my world.

Jessica Battilana is a freelance writer and the author of “Repertoire: All the Recipes You Need.” Instagram: Email: food@ sfchronicle. com Twitter: @ jbattilana

Jessica Battilana