Everyday Italian (22 page)

In a Food Processor
fitted with a metal blade, blend the oil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, sea salt, and cayenne pepper to form a paste. Rub the paste over the lamb chops and marinate for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours.

Heat a grill pan over a high flame until almost smoking. Add the chops and sear for 2 minutes on each side. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the lamb chops to desired doneness, about 3 minutes longer per side for medium-rare. Transfer the lamb chops to two plates, dividing equally, and serve.

I use the word
cutlet
for any thin, boneless, skinless piece of veal, pork, or chicken. For veal, your butcher will have “cutlet” meat; for pork, I usually use a boneless chop, pounded thin; and for chicken, a boneless, skinless breast, sliced crosswise and pounded thin.
These are perhaps the ultimate in
Everyday Italian
entrée choices: They cook
extremely
quickly, and you can top them with just about anything you like. And the meats are pretty interchangeable in many recipes; you can mix and match the meat from one recipe with the sauce or preparation from another. (You’ve probably noticed this on menus—Chicken Marsala and Veal Marsala, Chicken Parmigiana and Veal Parmigiana. The restaurants mix and match, and so can you.) Just remember that cooking times vary, and it’s especially important not to overcook veal (or it becomes tough and loses its delicate flavor) or undercook chicken or pork (for safety’s sake). Other than that, though, go forth into the world of cutlets—the ultimate in flexibility, ease, and speed, not to mention a great variety of classic Italian dishes and some new favorites.

Perhaps the all-time number-one most popular Italian-American dish, Chicken Parmesan is often made of thickly breaded chicken cutlets topped with way too much cheese and garlicky tomato sauce. (And in many restaurants, if you can locate the actual Parmesan in the “Chicken Parmesan,” you should win a huge prize.) I wanted to remain true to the heartiness of the dish, but I also wanted to lighten it up a bit. So I don’t bread my cutlets, but instead brown them in a skillet before adding the topping and baking them.

4 MAIN-COURSE SERVINGS

Spoon the marinara sauce over and around the cutlets. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of mozzarella over each cutlet, then sprinkle 2 teaspoons of Parmesan over each. Dot the tops with the butter pieces, and bake until the cheese melts and the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes.

This is the lightest of the cutlet recipes, with the bright, acidic lemon juice perfectly complemented by the briny capers and the fresh parsley. Be sure to keep your dusting of flour light; you’re not making a thick egg-and-bread-crumb coating.

4 MAIN-COURSE SERVINGS

Add the broth, lemon juice, and capers to the same pan. Bring the broth mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan for extra flavor. Return the chicken to the pan and simmer until just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a platter. Whisk the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into the sauce. Pour the sauce over the chicken, garnish with the parsley, and serve.

Saltimbocca
means “leap in the mouth”—as in, this traditional Roman dish is so good that surprisingly it will just leap into your mouth. In Italy they make this dish with veal, but I find that the delicate flavors of veal get lost amid the strong tastes of the spinach and prosciutto, and I end up feeling like the very expensive veal cutlets were a waste of money. So I use chicken.

6 MAIN-COURSE SERVINGS

Place the chicken cutlets flat on a work surface. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt and ¾ teaspoon of pepper. Lay 1 slice of prosciutto atop each chicken cutlet. Arrange an even layer of spinach atop the prosciutto and sprinkle the Parmesan cheese evenly over each. Beginning at the short tapered end, roll up each cutlet as for a jelly roll and secure with a toothpick.

In a large, heavy skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil over a high flame. Add the chicken rolls and cook just until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Add the broth and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover, and simmer until the chicken is just cooked through, about
4
minutes.

Using tongs, transfer the chicken to 6 plates and set aside. Increase the heat to high and cook the sauce until it is reduced to about ⅓ cup, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle the sauce over the chicken, and serve.

This classic Italian-American dish is a prime example of a versatile preparation—you’ll find Marsala recipes made with veal, pork, chicken, and even steak. Not surprisingly, the key is the Marsala wine, which for centuries has been one of the prized treasures of Sicily. It’s a fortified wine—like Portugal’s port or Spain’s sherry—and can be either sweet, which is the type used for cooking, or dry.

4 MAIN-COURSE SERVINGS