Dutch Oven Veal Scaloppine Picatta with Mushrooms

Veal scaloppine are very thinly cut slices of veal that can be prepared several different ways.

One of my favourite is to bread and deep fry them (using a technique we looked at in a previous post) and then serve them with lemon wedges.

But another way I like to make scaloppine is "picatta" style, which is simmered in lemon and white wine. Usually this is done in a saucepan, but if you are making a lot of veal (for a party or big family dinner) I have adapted a technique used for making layered scalloped beef in a Dutch Oven that works very well in this case and that produces a rich, thick and tart sauce.

For the present blog, I made around 10 scaloppine pieces, which ended up being two layers in the Dutch Oven.

First, you take your scaloppine and dredge them in flour seasoned liberally with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Heat some olive oil in the bottom of your Dutch Oven over medium-high heat on the stove-top until ready to fry and, in batches, brown the veal about 30 seconds a side.

Set the veal aside and then, without cleaning out the bottom of the Dutch Oven, add some more olive oil and heat and then add 2 cups of sliced mushrooms and 4 cloves of minced garlic. Saute the mushrooms and garlic for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bottom of the oven as you do so. When they are done, remove the mushrooms and set aside in a bowl.

Remove the Dutch Oven from heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes. Then place a layer of the browned scaloppini across the bottom of the oven. Top this with some of the sauteed garlic and mushrooms in proportion to how many layers of scaloppini you will have. In other words, if you are going to have 2 layers of scaloppini use half of them, 3 layers 1/3 of them, etc. Repeat this process until done.

Also pour the juice of a half a lemon over each layer.

When you are finished layering add enough dry white wine (I used a Portuguese wine Gatao that I am very fond of, but you can use any dry white) to just barely cover the layers of  veal and mushroom.

Bring the wine and lemon juice to a boil on the stove-top and then reduce the heat, cover while leaving the lid slightly off at a couple of edges, and simmer the veal for 20 minutes.

Serve the scalopinni topped with the garlic mushrooms and the delicious and zesty sauce that is produced.

Enjoy.