Veal scaloppine with white wine and sage, served with soft polenta
Thin escalopes seared for a minute, a reduced white wine sauce thickened by their light coating of flour and finished with olive oil off the heat, crisp fried sage and soft olive oil polenta to catch the juices.
Ingredients for two
| 320 g | Thin veal escalopes (120 g each) 320 g: 2 escalopes of 160 g each, halved by the butcher, or 4 of 80 g each; ask for them to be flattened to 4–5 mm |
| 15 g | Plain wheat flour 1 heaped tbsp, for a very thin coating |
| 60 g | Extra virgin olive oil 6 tbsp: 30 g for searing (15 g per batch), 15 g to emulsify the sauce, 15 g for the polenta |
| 120 g | Kosher dry white wine 120 ml, dry and kosher |
| 10 g | Fresh sage 8 leaves (a 30 g bunch contains 20–25): 4 fried for serving, 4 in the sauce |
| 10 g | Flat-leaf parsley A small handful of leaves, chopped: half in the sauce, half on the plates |
| 150 g | Polenta (maize meal) Instant polenta, with a cooking time of 3–5 minutes |
| 900 g | Water 850 g for the polenta, 50 g for the sauce |
| 30 g | Lemon 1/4 lemon, yielding 10 g juice |
| 9 g | Fine salt 3 g for the meat, 5 g for the polenta water, 1 g reserved to adjust the sauce |
| 0.8 g | Ground black pepper About 1/3 tsp |
Method
- Heat 850 g water and 5 g salt in a 3-litre saucepan with a lid. Once boiling, cover and keep over a very low heat. Pat the escalopes dry with kitchen paper and season both sides with the 3 g salt and the pepper. Spread the flour in a shallow bowl but do not coat the meat yet: flouring ahead would make it gummy rather than golden. Chop the parsley.
- Heat a 30 cm frying pan with 30 g oil over a medium-high heat. As it heats, flour both sides of the escalopes and pat off the excess, leaving only a thin film with no white patches. When the oil shimmers, add 4 sage leaves for 30 seconds, until translucent and crisp, then set aside on kitchen paper for serving. Lay the escalopes flat in a single layer, working in two batches if they overlap and spooning out any blackened flour crumbs between batches. Sear for 1 minute, then for 45 seconds on the other side: they should be just golden at the edges and still supple to the touch. Transfer to a plate with their juices and take the pan off the heat.
- Bring the salted water back to the boil, sprinkle in the polenta while whisking, reduce the heat to low and stir for 3–5 minutes according to the packet, until smooth with no hard grains. Taste: it should be seasoned as a dish, not bland porridge. Off the heat, stir in 15 g oil and cover; it will wait easily for the 6–7 minutes needed to make the sauce. It should flow slowly from a spoon; if it has set, loosen with 1–2 tbsp hot water just before serving.
- Return the frying pan to a medium heat, remove any remaining blackened flour crumbs, add the 4 remaining sage leaves and stir for 20 seconds. Pour in the wine, which will sizzle. Scrape up the browned bits with a wooden spoon and boil for 2 minutes, until the liquid has reduced by half. Add the 50 g water and the juices released by the meat, then simmer for 1 minute. Taste: the sauce should be distinctly seasoned; add the remaining 1 g salt if needed.
- Warm two shallow bowls under very hot water and dry them. Return the escalopes and their juices to the sauce over a low heat for 30 seconds on each side, just to warm and coat them, then turn off the heat: prolonged boiling would toughen them. Off the heat, add 10 g lemon juice, the 15 g olive oil in a thin stream and half the parsley, then swirl the pan for 20 seconds. The sauce should become glossy and emulsified, leaving a thin coating on the back of a spoon. Divide the polenta between the bowls, add the escalopes, pour over the sauce, scatter with the remaining parsley and fried sage leaves, and serve immediately.
Lighter version
- Polenta (maize meal) : 120 g
- Water : 730 g
- Extra virgin olive oil : 40 g
- add Rocket 100 g (1 bag, for a bed beneath the escalopes)
Cook 120 g polenta in 680 g salted water, still using 5 g salt, and finish with 10 g oil. Sear the veal in 20 g oil in one batch if possible; otherwise use 10 g per batch in a well-heated pan, removing blackened flour crumbs between batches. Emulsify the sauce with 10 g oil. Serve the escalopes on a bed of raw rocket alongside the polenta; the hot sauce will wilt it lightly.
60 g polenta per person, a third less oil and raw rocket beneath the meat, with the same sauce and more greens on the plate.
On your plate
Recipe
752 kcal · protein 41 g · carbs 65 g · fat 36 g
Quantities per person
- 160 g Thin veal escalopes (120 g each)
- 7.5 g Plain wheat flour
- 30 g Extra virgin olive oil
- 60 g Kosher dry white wine
- 5 g Fresh sage
- 5 g Flat-leaf parsley
- 75 g Polenta (maize meal)
- 450 g Water
- 15 g Lemon
- 4.5 g Fine salt
- 0.4 g Ground black pepper
Cooking tips
Dry wine and sage give this dish its character. Lemon remains subtle, while the oil added off the heat combines with the light flour coating to thicken the sauce without butter for a meat meal. Do not flour the escalopes ahead: do it while the oil heats. Make the polenta before the sauce and keep covered; if it thickens, loosen over a low heat with 1–2 spoonfuls of hot water. Ask the butcher to flatten the escalopes to 4–5 mm: the stated cooking times do not suit thick slices; at 1 cm, allow 1 minute 30 seconds per side. Use instant polenta to keep within 35 minutes. Cook the escalopes at the last moment. For a starter, prepare caponata the day before; it is better cold.
Italian scaloppine al vino bianco e salvia, adapted with olive oil for a meat meal.
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