Classic Veal Florentine (Sorta)
Every now and then you come across a recipe you just truly love. I took a Classic Veal Florentine recipe and modified it. Seems my family including myself found it to be by far the best recipe in the world.
I’ll post the original recipe and then my super great modified version.
You’ll need:
6 ounces fresh spinach
6 tablespoons of butter
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 can (14.5 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes
¼ cup dry white wine
¼ cup water
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
½ teaspoon sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup all-purpose flour
4 veal cutlets (3/8 inch thick)
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 ounces mozzarella cheese (shredded)
Homemade angel hair pasta
- To steam spinach, rinse thoroughly in large bowl of water. Drain but do not squeeze dry. Trim and discard stems. Stack leaves; cut crosswise into coarse shreds. Place spinach in large saucepan over medium heat. Cover and steam 4 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add 2 tablespoons butter; cook and stir until butter is absorbed. Remove from pan; set aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until melted and bubbly. Add garlic; cook and stir 30 seconds. Press tomatoes and juice through sieve into garlic mixture; discard seeks. Add wine, water, tomato paste, sugar, ½ teaspoon last and 1/8 teaspoon pepper to tomato mixture. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes, stirring 0ccasionally. Remove from heat; set aside.
- Mix flour, remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a small plastic bag. Pound veal with a meat mallet to ¼ inch thickness. Pat dry with paper towels. Shake veal, 1 cutlet at a time in a seasoned flour to coat evenly.
- Heat oil and remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat until bubbly. Add veal to skillet; cook 2 to 3 minutes per side until light brown. Remove from heat. Spoon off excess fat. Top veal with reserved spinach, then cheese. Pour reserved tomato mixture into skillet, lifting the edges of veal to let sauce flow under. Cook over low heat until bubbly. Cover and simmer 8 minutes or until heated through. Serve with pasta.
My awesome modification!
See, we don’t do veal. I use chicken breasts. Also, the recipe above doesn’t make that much sauce which I believe is the WHOLE secret to this dish.
12 ounces of fresh spinach
2 sticks of butter
4 cloves of garlic (however I use the already minced garlic)
1 can of 28 ounces of tomato sauce (fuck the straining)
½ cup of white wine
½ cup of water
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 ½ teaspoons of salt
½ teaspoon of pepper
½ cup of flour (or more)
5 chicken breasts (boneless)
8 ounces of mozzarella cheese
Linguine or pasta of your choice
- Steam spinach in a steamer (pretty much your done with step 1)
- Heat 4 tablespoons of butter in a large sauce pan. Add garlic and sauté for a minute or two. Add tomato sauce, wine, water, tomato paste, sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, ¼ teaspoon of pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low. Simmer. I let it simmer the whole time I’m cooking the other stuff.
- Boil whatever pasta you plan on using. Kill heat to it once done and leave in pot.
- This is the fun part. You need to beat the chicken breast to about ¼ inch. You will need a mallet and A LOT of wax paper. Put the chicken between the wax paper and beat. Just a warning – your chicken will be the diameter of a small plate when you’re done. Do all five chicken breast to get them out of your way. Separate them with wax paper.
- Hopefully by now, the spinach is done steaming. Remove from steamer and place in small pan with a few 4 tablespoons of butter. Cook and stir until butter is absorbed. Remove from stove and place in a bowl.
- Mix flour, ½ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of pepper in a large freeze bag. Now, it seems the chicken will take more of this mixture than veal. So, I don’t stick strictly to the measurements. I add more flour as it’s getting low and more salt and pepper as I deem necessary.
- Heat oil and a pat of butter in a pan. You’ll need a hell of a lot more oil and butter than the original recipe since the flour seems to soak it up. Put a breast in a bag and shake it up until it’s completely coated with flour. Put breast in pan and cook on both sides until lightly brown and juices run clear.
- Place each breast in plate with pasta. Cover with sauce. Put some spinach over the chicken along with some cheese. Serve hot.
- When everyone is done eating use the sauce as a nice soup.
