This is not exactly the Veal Marsala recipe you'll find in Italian cookbooks, but it's not that far removed either. I enrich the sauce with a little chicken stock (or veal stock when I have it on hand) and a bit of lemon zest. It's a very simple recipe to make, so long as you follow a few simple rules.
The first rule is to fry the scallopine on high heat. For some reason when I started cooking I was hesitant to turn the heat up. I suppose I'd burned things now and again, and I probably wasn't as used to cooking with high heat as I am now. For whatever reason, a lot of my cooking suffered because I tried to do things that called for a quick, high-heat sear with less than sufficient heat.
Don't make that mistake. Just be aware of the pitfalls that cooking with high heat can hold. For this recipe, one of those pitfalls is that the flour you use to dredge the veal, and some of which will invariably end up in the pan, may burn if you don't work fairly quickly.
The second of which is that more of that flour will fall off, and will refuse to brown properly, if you dredge the cutlets and leave them sitting before putting them into the pan. This is a dish that requires you to cook the scallopine in batches, so just dredge each one right before you put it into the pan and you'll be okay.
1 lb. veal scallopine (cutlets, usually very thinly cut from the leg, and pounded to an even thickness of around 1/4 inch.)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
flour for dredging (count on using around 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup Marsala (dry)
1/2 cup veal or chicken stock
1 tbs. minced lemon zest
2-3 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. butter
3 additional tbs. butter, for finishing the sauce.
Season the scallopine with a little salt and pepper on both sides.
Heat the olive oil and 2 tbs. of butter in a saute pan on high heat. When the foam from the butter subsides, and the fat is very hot, dredge a few pieces of scallopine in flour, shake off the excess, then fry them about 1 minute on each side, or until they're lightly browned. Reserve them as they finish cooking onto a cooling rack, and season with a little salt.
Cook the scallopine in batches, working quickly so that you don't burn the residual flour that will inevitably find it's way into the pan. When all the scallopine are done, pour off all but a teaspoon or so of the fat, and return the pan to the fire. Add the marsala, keeping the pan tilted away from you, and stir rapidly to mix in all of the fond left in the pan.
Add the stock, and continue to stir. Reduce the sauce to your desired thickness - typically it's a syrupy consistency. Taste for seasoning, then add the zest and the rest of the butter on low heat, stirring to incorporate. Return the scallopine to the pan to reheat, and serve immediately with a little sauce on top.
You can add herbs to this dish if you want to fancy it up a bit. I'd stick to a scant teaspoon of something like thyme, marjoram, or a perhaps a bit less than a teaspoon of oregano, chopped finely and added when you include the zest.
I serve this dish with a soup made from the tears of my defeated victims. But you can substitute a nice crusty bread.
Posted by Robert at June 21, 2005 08:50 PMThe trick is to avoid over-salting the soup.