I’ve been thinking a lot about old recipes lately. Recipes other people used to make, that have gone out of fashion. And recipes I used to make ( and love) that don’t seem to be in my rotation anymore.
Which of course has lead me to start thinking about some of my oldest and most beloved cookbooks.
I cooked from a very early age, and by the time I was in high school, I was the de facto chef in the house. My mother worked, and so I pretty much had the run of the kitchen. While I definitely consulted her battered and stained copy of Joy of Cooking and her even older copy of Thoughts for Buffet (I kid you not) I was usually after something more exotic, challenging and (I realize now) sophisticated. This lead me to the local library where I thumbed through copies of Time Life series learning how to make things like Gumbo and Coq au vin. At one point I got my hands on a Chinese cookbook that lead me to present multi course feasts for my family on a regular basis.
But my favorite book of all was a paperback copy of Craig Claiborne’s Favorites from the New York Times. I’m not sure how I came in possession of this. I have a feeling I found it in my father’s kitchen in New York. In any case I appropriated it as my own, and began to cook what I considered to be extraordinarily sophisticated meals that also tasted delicious.
One of my favorites from his pages, long before I discovered Marcella Hazan, was Veal Piccata. Which I made, and made and made and made for years. And naturally assumed that not only was it an authentic Italian recipe, but that was the oh-so-authentic Italian name for it.
So the other night, when I was deciding what to do with some veal scaloppine that I had bought at the farmer’s market, I must have said, out loud, “Oh, I’ll make Veal Piccata.” And immediately Sophie and Domenico started laughing at me, repeating, over and over, in an exaggerated American accent “Veal Picada, veal picada.”
And so I found out that this super easy, addictively delicious dish, should never be referred to as Veal Piccata, or even Vitello Piccata. It’s more commonly known, in Italy, as scaloppine al limone, or, more rarely piccata di vitello. Marcella chimes in with Scaloppine di Vitello al limone.
Along the way from my first introduction via Craig Claiborne, I’ve made a few changes to the original recipe. Neither Craig nor Marcella call for white wine, but I do. I’ve also played around with the type of meat over the years. Here in Italy veal is usually much older than veal in the States, called Vitellone (teen veal more or less) and that is usually what I use. But chicken and even flattened pork loin slices work too.
As you can see it’s super easy and although you may think the amount of butter in the dish is overabundant, it’s the secret ingredient. Skimp on another part of your meal, but don’t try this without all that butter. The sauce won’t be nearly as delicious. And the sauce? The whole point of this old fashioned, much loved, recipe.
Which is now back in rotation at Casa Minchilli.
Love your videos…but how do you print and save the recipe? I have a “HUGE” PDF collection of your recipes to which i frequently refer. Am i now restricted to scree shots?
Again..love the videos but miss the ability to print the recipe.
Thanks so much, happy to hear you love the recipes! Quick answer: no way to print these recipes. Sorry! But the point of most of these videos where there are no recipes, is that they are SO easy, with so few ingredients, that just watching the video should do it for you. Think of it as a quick cooking lesson, where you are with me in the kitchen.
One of our fav’s!! Nothing better and once you can close your eyes and make it in your sleep, so simple. Thanks for reminding me we have not had it for a while. Moving to a new locale means finding the vendor and I have not found the right one et. You have encouraged me to search harder!!!!!! yet. You have encouraged me to search harder!!!!!!
Used to make this often, also with pollo.
Veal picatta looks great….gonna try it….no capers?
Perhaps just for chicken version?
Will
My feeling is that you should feel free to add capers to anything you desire. So caper away!
You, my dear, are on the sharpest edge of how the next few generations will learn recipes. The printed pages and great photos do a good deed but your video leads to a new way! No smoke…………pun intended!
Thanks so much! The videos are indeed fun to make. And, I think, a nice change (for me and the readers) from the usual. Glad you agree!
Looks delicious. I will be making it soon
It’s funny to hear you bring up the New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne because it is one of my most cherished cookbooks. Yes, the recipes are old school, but I never made a dish out of that book that wasn’t very good.
Doesn’t just talking about it make you hungry?
Thoughts on Buffets is a classic! I have this on my shelf can’t believe anyone would ever dis it – especially the beginning when it starts with “Dear Hostesses”. But a favorite recipe has to be the Avocado Ring Mold on page 168:) And I have Series II of Craig Claiborne’s NY Times, definitely a special one. Love Veal Piccata or its aka!
I still use the marinade for beef kebabs from Thoughts for Buffet, which was one of my mom’s signature dishes.
That is funny, Elizabeth. In Melbourne the dish is called scaloppine al limone – or more fully scaloppine di vitello al limone. Haven’t come across the piccata name. I make scaloppine di vitello in all its various forms quite often at home and it is on the menus of the more traditional Italian restaurants here – including as saltimbocca di vitello at the brilliant, theatrical old world Cafe di Stasio (http://distasio.com.au/).
It may be that many of the traditional Italian dishes are still made more often in the New World than at home. Melbourne has a wonderful vibrant Italo-Australian food culture. We have the best coffee culture in the world as a result of this heritage – well that’s what we think, anyway!
Really? That’s interesting that they refer to the veal made with lemon as saltimbocca, which is a completely different dish.
Is it wrong that I am seeing this at 10am and want to eat that entire plate of it? 😉 Your videos are always so appealing. I am – admittedly – a fairly lazy cook even though I do love the whole process and so need such a great nudge to try different things! Molto grazie…
PS. This does make me think that I don’t see veal on offer as much as I used to when I first moved to France. I wonder why?
I think that in France, as in Italy, it is often sold as younger beef, rather than veau.
This has been a staple in our home for years, so much that, when my sons left for college, they asked me to teach them how to make it. I love it just as you prepare it, with lemon, white wine and lots of butter. Here in the states, when you order veal piccata in a restaurant, it typically has capers, artichoke hearts, even mushrooms, which I think distracts from the simplicity of the dish.
Yeah, a lot of people have been writing me about the capers. I’m tempted, though, to try a version with fresh artichokes, which sounds delicious.
Would that all recipes and videos of food preparation be so wonderfully unfussy. You rock.
Thank you!!!
Thanks for a reminder of one of our family’s absolute favorite. I did make it with pollo when my kids were young as veal was and still is very expensive, especially the cutlets. I wish I were there in Rome in that cozy apt cooking away!! That was a magical trip, many thanks to you!
Love that label:
nato in Italia
allevato in Italia
macellato in Italia
sezionato in Italia
Can’t get more local or more detailed than that. An entire pedigree!
that is making me hungry. Your veal is so huge–and looks so much better (and less sinewy) than anything you can get here (though some local farmers are starting to dabble in it, though one has declared that all cows evil and incredibly stupid, having attempted this after raising forest-fed pigs, which I guess are much easier…).
How fun that you and your daughter can now collaborate in cooking careers–lucky you!
thanks!
Yes, very huge! That’s because it’s older than most veal in the states. Also, it was a bit tough, which is why it gets pounded first, to tender it up.
This post took me down memory lane as the Time Life Series, and Craig Claiborne’s NY Times Cookbook had a tremendous impact on me growing up. I would sit for hours, leafing through the pages, planning family feasts. Veal Piccata as it was called, was a family favorite.
All those cookbooks that you mentioned bring back memories– they were all on my mother’s book shelf. Many of her signature recipes came from Thoughts for Buffet, and she was a very good cook. Also, she made a veal Marsala dish from the Time Life Italian cookbook. Your veal piccata looks similar and very delicious. I think I wil make it for my kids.
Really? You’re the first person I’ve met who also grew up with Thoughts for Buffet!
Back in Rome, and I ate it many times.the early 80s, vitello al lemone was on the menu of every trattoria in town. Very simple; nothing like American veal piccata, and I ate it often. I miss other dishes from those days I don’t see much any more, like pollo alla diavola and abbachio al forno and pollo alla romana.
You can usually ask for this dish, even if it’s not on the menu. Pollo alla romana and abbacchio al forno are almost always still on most menus though.