{"id":222,"date":"2011-02-02T01:56:48","date_gmt":"2011-02-02T01:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/?p=222"},"modified":"2011-02-02T01:57:41","modified_gmt":"2011-02-02T01:57:41","slug":"if-i-had-a-hammer-chicken-saltimbocca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/?p=222","title":{"rendered":"If I Had a Hammer: Chicken Saltimbocca"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chicken Saltimbocca with Pasta in a Fresh Ricotta and Spinach Sauce<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I\u2019m often asked if Andrew likes to cook and help out in the kitchen.\u00a0 The truth is that Andrew likes to eat more than cook – that is until there is a cool tool or gadget to be used.\u00a0 Meat grinders, food mills, cheese graters, knives, blowtorches, this is Andrew\u2019s kitchen domain.\u00a0 If I need the tops of 20 eggs cut off and it means using the eggshell cutter, he\u2019s mine until the task is over.<\/p>\n

This passion for gadgets is a real boon at Christmas and birthdays.\u00a0 I\u2019m always assured a new toy for the kitchen.\u00a0 It\u2019s also a touching sign that he\u2019s paying attention to my needs or desires.\u00a0 Among the gifts that Grandma has helped him pick out for me is always something that he had made a mental note of after seeing the need when I was cooking.\u00a0 Sometimes this is a sweet but self-serving gift as when he bought me the tools to make his favorite food, sushi.\u00a0 More often than not, it\u2019s because he really wants to give me the one thing he knows I want and need.<\/p>\n

Awhile ago, we were working in the kitchen and I was pounding out something with an old wooden kitchen mallet and the head flew off.\u00a0 Besides cracking Andrew up, it also sparked many questions about why I needed a mallet, how it was used, and what effect it had on meat.\u00a0\u00a0 Sure enough, on my next birthday I unwrapped a beautiful all-metal meat mallet.\u00a0 He remembered.\u00a0 He has been dying to use it ever since.<\/p>\n

When we got home from school this afternoon, Andrew went straight to his room to do homework.\u00a0 I went to the kitchen to figure out what to fix.\u00a0 Monday-night suppers are almost as important as Sunday for us, if not more.\u00a0 We normally fix something really good.\u00a0 It\u2019s our way of beating the Monday doldrums and letting the universe know that we are just as grateful for the start of the school week as we are for the end.\u00a0\u00a0 Life\u2019s too short to hate 1\/7th of it!<\/p>\n

I had been thinking about a veal saltimbocca that we ate in Rome last year.\u00a0 It was so simple and incredibly tasty.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have veal in the fridge, but I had defrosted a couple of chicken breasts.\u00a0\u00a0 I pulled them out and laid them on the cutting board.\u00a0 I then covered them with plastic wrap, grabbed the mallet, and started whacking away.\u00a0 Within seconds Andrew was at my side.<\/p>\n

\u201cDad, can I do it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t whack it to hard, just let\u2026.\u201d I started.<\/p>\n

He finished my sentence, \u201cjust let the mallet do the work.\u00a0\u00a0 I see how you are doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew took over and soon I had two thin chicken breasts ready for further preparation.\u00a0 Saltimbocca means \u201cto jump in your mouth.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m sure it gets its name from how much flavor is packed into one little bite.\u00a0 This is a fantastic recipe that\u2019s easy enough for a Monday-night family dinner and special enough for guests.\u00a0\u00a0 Tonight I served it with trennette pasta (a triangular tube pasta similar to penne rigate) with a homemade ricotta and spinach sauce, but that\u2019s a story in itself.\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/p>\n

Chicken Saltimbocca<\/p>\n

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Chicken Saltimbocca<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Here\u2019s my version of the classic dish.\u00a0 It can be doubled or quadrupled easily<\/p>\n

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts<\/p>\n

3 or 4 thin slices prosciutto<\/p>\n

10 to 20 sage leaves, depending on the size. (I have a sage plant with very small leaves and I use 20)<\/p>\n

4 tablespoons butter<\/p>\n

1 teaspoon salt<\/p>\n

Pepper<\/p>\n

1 cup dry white wine<\/p>\n

\u00bc cup marsala (optional)<\/p>\n

\u00bc cup flour (I used semolina, but regular flour works perfectly fine)<\/p>\n

Place the breasts on a cutting board and cover with plastic wrap.\u00a0 Pound the chicken until it\u2019s very thin, but not falling apart, approximately \u00bc to \u00bd inch thick.\u00a0 Remove the plastic wrap and grind pepper all over the breasts.\u00a0 Cover them with the prosciutto and place 3 or 4 sage leaves on one half. Fold the chicken in half so that the prosciutto is covered.\u00a0 Cover the breasts with plastic wrap again and pound out a bit to create chicken pockets.<\/p>\n

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Pounding the Chicken<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Andrew happy in the kitchen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Before and after<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Over a medium high flame, heat a pan large enough to hold both breasts.\u00a0 Melt the butter and let it just start to brown.\u00a0 Have ready a plate with the flour mixed with the salt.\u00a0 Lightly dredge the breasts in the flour mixture and place the chicken in the hot pan.\u00a0 Cook each side for about 3 minutes.\u00a0 Remove the chicken and place it in a warm oven. Take the rest of the sage leaves and toss them in the saut\u00e9 pan.\u00a0 You may have to add a couple of tablespoons more of butter if there is not enough fat in the pan.\u00a0 Fry the sage until crispy, about 2 to 3 minutes.\u00a0 Remove the leaves and set aside.<\/p>\n

Deglaze the pan with the white wine and add a splash of Marsala if you have it in the house.\u00a0 Cook the wine until it starts to get thick and syrupy.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry if you cook it too long.\u00a0 Just add more wine and reduce again.\u00a0 I had to add it three times tonight because I kept getting busy with something else and forgetting it.\u00a0 It was delicious just the same.\u00a0 Pour the sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with the fried sage leaves, and serve.<\/p>\n

The chicken went fantastically with the pasta.\u00a0 If you want to make your life easy, just serve it with pasta in a simple tomato sauce and a side vegetable.\u00a0 Spinach or beans work really well.<\/p>\n

Provecho<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m often asked if Andrew likes to cook and help out in the kitchen.\u00a0 The truth is that Andrew likes to eat more than cook – that is until there is a cool tool or gadget to be used.\u00a0 Meat grinders, food mills, cheese graters, knives, blowtorches, this is Andrew\u2019s kitchen domain.\u00a0 If I need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recipes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}