TONY BENNETT’S
VEAL SCALOPPINE MARSALA
OK, I lied. Well, sort of. The recipe’s the same, but the meat is chicken.
I cut this recipe out in 1985 and can’t believe I still have it. I haven’t made it in years, but seeing Tony Bennett sing on TV recently at the World Series triggered my food memory and I began to crave that distinct taste of Marsala sauce. But veal is expensive. Chicken is cheap.
I know, chicken, again?!?! But times are tough and, quite frankly, in this dish, the chicken doesn’t taste that different from veal. And that’s not a lie. In fact, I remember a restaurant scandal in NYC’s Little Italy many years ago, when a popular Italian restaurant was substituting chicken for its veal scaloppine and veal parmesan dishes w/o anyone noticing the difference for months.
So, since we had a bottle of Marsala wine somewhere in the back of our liquor cabinet and Richard loves veal Marsala, he decided to try out my old Tony recipe w/ a Costco boneless, skinless chicken breast from our freezer. How cheap is that!? (No need to answer – that’s a rhetorical question.)
Well, I’m happy to report my craving is gone. Last nite we had the loveliness of chicken; the glory that was veal was just another day..
Ingredients:
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 lb thinly sliced veal (or boneless, skinless chicken breast)
¼ lb butter
4 tablespoons Marsala wine
4 teaspoons chicken broth
Directions:
Combine flour, salt, pepper and grated lemon peel in a mixing bowl.
Pound flat the veal (chicken) and cut into 2-1/2 inch pieces. Coat w/ flour and lemon peel mixture.
Heat the Marsala wine w/ chicken broth in saucepan over low heat. Richard suggests you reduce it to thicken the sauce a bit.
Melt the butter in a skillet over low heat and brown the veal (chicken) about 2-1/2 to 3 minutes on each side.
When the veal (chicken) is browned, spoon the Marsala/chicken broth mixture over the veal (chicken) and serve.
Richard served the scaloppine Marsala dish w/ steamed broccoli and carrots. Oh, and a chilled chardonnay.
Serves 4
