TONY BENNETT'S VEAL SCALOPPINE MARSALA

 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