Home Cooking

After our trip to Bologna and Ravenna, we came home early enough to make dinner at home.  Now, you may be wondering why it has taken us so long to make dinner at home.  The answer is- we have been travelling and actually eat a very large lunch and just have a super light dinner.  Well, today was the exception.  We had a simple lunch and decided to make dinner at home.  We bought 2 veal chops at the grocery store and had some zucchini and tomatoes that we needed to eat.

To make this simple meal, all you will need is:

-1/2 Tbs. butter

-1/2 Tbs. olive oil

-2 veal chops (thickness is up to the buyer)

-Salt and black pepper to taste

-1 Tbs. olive oil

-1 onion, medium diced

-2 cloves of garlic, minced

-2 zucchini, sliced into rounds

-2 tomatoes, peeled and rough chopped

-Salt and black pepper to taste

-Parmesan cheese (if desired) to finish

We started the zucchini first.  Heat a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add olive oil and allow to heat up.  Add onions, season with salt and pepper and saute until translucent.  Add garlic and cook for 60 seconds or until you can smell it (do not let it burn!!).  Add zucchini and again season with salt and pepper (layers of flavor here folks!).  Cook zucchini until almost tender.  Add tomatoes and allow to heat through.  These tomatoes were really fresh and almost to the point of going bad, so they gave off a lot of juice.  This added some moisture to the pan so that the zucchini didn't burn.  If you are worried about that, then maybe add a little white wine or water to the pan.  Remember if you add wine, use something that you would drink.  Add just a little more salt and pepper.  Check seasoning and then serve.  Top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

For the veal, start with a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add butter and olive oil.  I used both because I wanted the butter flavor, but I didn't want the butter to burn.  Adding the oil helps that, plus adds another flavor to the dish.  Allow to the butter and oil to heat up before adding the meat.  Right before putting the meat in the pan, season with salt and pepper.  Never season the meat and then let it sit before cooking.  The only times I do season the meat and let it rest is when making ribs and cocoa & spiced rub steaks.  If you season the meat with salt and then let it sit, a lot of the moisture comes out of the meat leading to a really dry piece of meat.  Not tasty!  So, season the meat and then get it into the pan.  These veal chops were not that thick, so they didn't take much time on each side.  I gave them about 5 minutes a side, then turned them.  After cooking, I put them to the side to rest while the tomatoes warmed through in the zucchini.

If you are so inclined, serve this up with some bread to soak up any juices that come out of the meat and the vegetables.  I didn't make a starch simply because I had my serving of carbs at lunch that day.

Just a few notes:

- The olive oil that I use here is extra virgin.  I know a lot of chefs say to not cook with it because you loose the flavor that is in the extra virgin, but since Italy makes a TON of olive oil a year, extra virgin is plentiful and cheap.  And damn tasty.

-Veal is also big here and not beef.  It is also inexpensive, whereas veal in the US can be difficult to find, expensive and oftentimes, not that good.

-A lot of the food that I make at home is really easy to make and simple foods.  I don't want to make complicated dishes when it's 8pm and my only goal is eating dinner soon so that I can go to bed.

Enjoy!