31 October 2013

Almost Instant Gratification ... Pork Saltimbocca



For all the meat eaters in the crowd, I have THE simplest and most delicious dish ... pork saltimbocca  ... total minimalist fashion. Easy, easy, easy! Crack a bottle of nice red ... something from Montepulciano D'Abruzzo is nice. Make a nice plate of fresh greens and add slivers of purple onion, beautiful black olives, grated Asiago cheese, and a handful of nice herbed croutons. Fix this saltimbocca and enjoy ...





I use a pork tenderloin when I make this dish ... I slice off one-inch 'coins' and pound them gently to flatten them to scallops that measure about four by three inches and are about half an inch thick. Pepper both sides. No salt because the prosciutto is salty enough. Take slices of prosciutto ... one per pork scallop. Slice the prosciutto lengthwise down the middle and double up the strips, folding them over to fit onto the pork. Place one or two beautiful sage leaves atop and use a roulade skewer (they're longer than conventional toothpicks) to fasten everything together. Press the Saltimbocca gently to flatten things a bit.

Heat about two tablespoons of butter and one tablespoon of good olive oil in a fry pan over medium-high heat. Dredge the pork pieces in plain flour on both sides and place them sage side down in the bubbling fat. Don't touch them for three minutes. Then, gently turn them over and leave them alone again for three more minutes.

Remove the Saltimbocca to a warm platter. Set aside to rest.  Add about one tablespoon of Marsala wine per pork scallop to the hot pan (be careful, there will be a an explosion of steam). Let the sauce reduce for one or two minutes - more if you're cooking a lot of scallops and hence, there's more wine in the pan. Use a flat edged wooden spatula to scrape off the good stuff from the pan and incorporate things into the juice. At the last minute, add just a small dollop of butter to thicken the sauce. Let it cook a bit more, stirring it up well. Drizzle the sauce over the pork and serve or set the finished platter in a warm oven for just a few minutes to get things really hot ... if that's your preference.

This is a simple and gorgeous treatment for just a few ingredients ... enjoy!

PS ... Did you know that Saltimbocca means 'to leap into the mouth? Yup ... make extra. It's that good.




3 comments:

  1. I usually think of saltimbocca made with veal, but this sounds delicious. And so simple. I will have to try it soon. Thanks for the inspiration to try something new. Oven braised bone in pork chops are in my normal rotation, and I getting pretty sick of the same old thing.

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    1. Yes! I thought saltimbocca was just for veal also, but over the years I've seen different chefs use chicken and pork and a variety of different sauce reductions... I love it because it's so simple and the flavours are unadulterated by too much going on in the sauce or added food frippery ...

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  2. OMG....that looks so good.

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