Food: Veal Scallopine

I’m not very good at cooking thick pieces of meat. Chops, big steaks, thick pieces of chicken- I haven’t mastered that sixth sense of “done-ness” yet, meaning all of my meat has a tell-tale surgery mark down the middle where I’ve cheated and cut through to check its color. That’s why I like cutlets – chicken, pork, and veal alike. (Ok, the word “cutlet” makes me cringe, but for a meat novice like myself, they really are useful.)

One dish that makes good use of cutlets is Veal Scallopine – it’s not the prettiest dish, but it is pretty foolproof and only requires a few ingredients. Veal cutlets are so thin it’s virtually impossible to undercook them, but overcooking them is quite easy. Remember that the veal will continue to cook once you take it out of the pan and rest it, so err on the side of pink.

Veal Scallopine
6 slices veal cutlet
1 cup flour
1 tbsp salt
pepper
olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp capers

Mix flour with salt and pepper. Pat veal dry, dredge in flour mixture. Heat a few tbsp olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Cook veal in batches, 1-2 minutes per side. (Even though cutlets make it easy, it’s never a bad idea to have one sacrificial piece of veal to start with, to gauge the correct cooking time for the rest of your meat. Or maybe I’m just really, really Type A…) Place cooked veal on a plate to rest.

Once all of the veal is cooked, add butter, vinegar, and capers to pan, cook over low-medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Do not overheat or your butter will burn. Add veal back to pan just to heat through and coat with sauce. Voila.