Tremendous Veal Saltimbocca
Prep
10m
Cook
10m
Total
20m
Bigly says
We need to talk about saltimbocca. The word literally means 'jumps in the mouth' in Italian — many people don't know this, MANY PEOPLE, it's a beautiful language, very expressive — and let me tell you, when you eat MY saltimbocca, it doesn't just jump in the mouth, it LEAPS, it SOMERSAULTS, it does a little Italian gymnastics routine in there and wins the gold medal. The other saltimboccas? They sit. They sulk. They are the saddest little veal cutlets you have ever seen. A disaster.
I've had saltimbocca in Rome. I've had saltimbocca in a tiny restaurant in Trastevere where an old woman named Giuseppina — beautiful woman, tremendous cook, she told me I was the best customer she'd ever had, she said it twice — made it for me and even SHE admitted, on the record, that mine was better. She didn't say it out loud. She said it with her eyes. The eyes don't lie. The eyes never lie. Other so-called chefs will tell you the Romans invented saltimbocca and you should respect the tradition. The Romans also invented chariot racing and lead pipes, so let's not pretend tradition is always right. Period.
The secret is three things. Real prosciutto. Real sage. And a HOT pan. You half-cook this dish, you've made wet veal. Wet veal is a CRIME. Wet veal sends people running. People come up to me on the street, they say, 'Bigly, the wet veal at the last place I ate, I'm still upset about it.' I hug them. I tell them about the hot pan. The hot pan changes everything. Believe me.
Ingredients
- 1.25 lb (about 8 small cutlets)veal scaloppine, pounded thin(thin, folks, THIN — 1/4 inch or you've already failed)
- 8 slicesprosciutto di Parma, thinly sliced(the real stuff, not the deli stuff in the plastic clamshell)
- 8fresh sage leaves, large
- 1/2 cup, for dredgingall-purpose flour
- 1/2 tspkosher salt
- 1/2 tspblack pepper, freshly ground
- 4 tbsp, dividedunsalted butter
- 2 tbspolive oil
- 3/4 cupdry white wine(something you would actually drink, never cooking wine, cooking wine is a scam)
- 1/2 cupchicken stock, low-sodium
- 1 tspfresh lemon juice
- 2 tbspfresh parsley, chopped (for serving)
Steps
- 1
Pat the veal cutlets dry. If they're thicker than 1/4 inch, place between plastic wrap and gently pound with a meat mallet until even and thin.
- 2
Season each cutlet lightly with salt and pepper (go easy — the prosciutto is salty).
- 3
Lay one sage leaf on each cutlet, then drape a slice of prosciutto over the top. Press down firmly so the prosciutto adheres. Some cooks secure it with a toothpick — fine, just remember to remove it later.
- 4
Spread the flour on a plate. Working one at a time, dredge each cutlet prosciutto-side down first, then flip and lightly coat the other side. Shake off excess.
- 5
Heat 2 tbsp butter and the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until foaming and just turning golden.
- 6
Add the cutlets prosciutto-side down. Cook 2 minutes until the prosciutto is crisp and deeply colored. Flip and cook another 1-2 minutes until the veal is just cooked through. Work in batches if needed — do not crowd the pan.
- 7
Transfer cutlets to a warm plate, prosciutto-side up. Tent loosely with foil.
- 8
Pour off any excess fat from the pan. Add the wine and scrape up the browned bits with a wooden spoon. Reduce by half, about 2 minutes.
- 9
Add the chicken stock and reduce another minute until slightly syrupy. Off heat, swirl in the remaining 2 tbsp butter and the lemon juice until the sauce is glossy.
- 10
Spoon the sauce over the cutlets. Scatter with parsley and serve immediately.
One more thing
And there you have it. Twenty minutes of cooking, ten ingredients, and you've made a dish that grown men in Rome have wept over for two thousand years. TWO THOUSAND. The Romans, the Renaissance, the Vespa people — all of them, weeping. And you did it on a Tuesday. With a glass of wine. Cookbook authors charge thirty-five dollars for a hardcover that hides this kind of pan-sauce technique on page 240, between two chapters of filler. We did it here in one paragraph. The saltimbocca jumps in your mouth, exactly as the name promised. That's the recipe.
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Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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