Veal Scaloppine

Veal Scaloppine

Some of the other blogger's friends were in town over the weekend. She was pretty excited, so I offered to whip up a quick dinner while she put her face on and did whatever else girls do when the get ready. Turns out these days veal scaloppine with fresh tomatoes and basil is considered a quick dinner....

Ingredients 

• about a pound of veal scallops pounded to 1/4 inch thick
• 1.5 pounds fresh tomatoes (plum or the kind that comes on the vine)
• 4-6 garlic cloves minced
• a dozen basil leaves
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• red pepper flakes to taste
• olive oil, flour, salt and pepper

Process

1. Prepare the tomatoes
1. Get a pot of boiling water going and a bowl full of ice water
2. Make a little X in the bottom of the tomatoes with a knife
3. Place the tomatoes in the boiling water for 15 seconds each then transfer to the ice water
4. Peal the tomatoes
5. Core the tomatoes
6. Dice the tomatoes into 1/4 inch pieces while doing this remove the seeds and juices to a bowl
2. If the veal was not already pounded by the butcher, place inbetween two plastic sheets and pound with something hard and flat until roughly 1/4 inch thick
3. Season the veal on both sides with salt and pepper
4. Coat the veal with flour
5. In a large frying pan heat 1/4 cup of olive oil over medium heat
6. Cook the veal for ~1.5 minutes on each side and place on a paper towel
7. Add the minced garlic to the pan and cook until golden for 3-4 minutes
8. Add the tomatoes, butter and hot pepper flakes and simmer until the tomatoes begin to get tender ~4 minutes
9. Strain the tomato juice into the pan leaving behind the seeds and guts, season with salt and pepper to taste
10. Add the veal back to the pan and simmer until the sauce thickens ~4-6 minutes
11. Chiffonade the basil and add for the last two minutes of cooking
12. Plate and garnish with more basil

There were a bunch of pictures on Google images of this dish served with asparagus, so I steamed some for a side, plus I wanted to retest the olfactory hypothesis.