Piccata

Thin escalopes cooked in two minutes, with the sauce built in the pan afterwards.

Veal. Not vegetarian — contains veal.

Ingredients

• 600 g veal escalopes, beaten to 4 mm
• 4 tablespoons plain flour
• 80 g butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• juice of 2 lemons
• 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
• 100 ml dry white wine
• parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Beat the escalopes between sheets of film until they are 4 mm thick. Thin is the whole technique: at that thickness they cook through before the outside toughens.
2. Flour them lightly and shake off the excess. The flour is there to thicken the sauce later, not to coat them — a thick crust would go gluey.
3. Fry them in the oil and half the butter, in a single layer, 60 SECONDS A SIDE and no more. Lift them onto a warm plate.
4. A CROWDED PAN IS THE FAILURE MODE. Two escalopes at a time in a hot pan; four drop the temperature and they stew in their own juice and go grey.
5. BUILD THE SAUCE IN THE EMPTY PAN: wine first, scraping, then the lemon juice and capers, reduced for a minute.
6. Take the pan off the heat and swirl in the remaining cold butter a piece at a time until the sauce thickens and shines. Off the heat, or it splits.
7. Return the escalopes for 20 seconds to warm through, add parsley, and serve immediately.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes