Chef in Venice #3 - Veal escalope with risotto Milanese, roasted raddichio Treviso and beurre noisette

Ideally when you do this you need a stainless steel frying pan and flour or polenta. Unfortunately on this occasion, as I was on holiday, I had neither.

Using a stainless steel pan and my salt tip is the best solution - non-stick pans just can not get hot enough. To get the heat you need to get a good seal, the non-stick pan it will smoke, burn and will be ruined beyond repair for the next time you want to use it.

The risotto Milanese was made in the traditional manner with softened onion, rice, saffron, white wine (prosecco substituted), then marscapone and the finest parmesan reggiano (how I love the Billa shop) and herbs (I used fresh chopped marjoram) to finish.

This was the first time I had tried using the raddicho Treviso. In the UK you normally use the round raddichio (chioggia). If you buy a ready prepared salad mix it will undoubtedly have raddichio in it, for both colour and flavour. Treviso - a large industrial town - is just a few kilometres from Venice and it‘s where many people who work in Venice actually live. I had seen the Treviso variety in the market many times before but had always passed over it. What we had been missing out on! Like Belgium endive, raddicho is also really nice cooked. I pan fried it on a high heat to colour the outside, then finished it off on a baking tray in the oven - though you could just keep it in the pan to cook, but as I only had one pan I needed it for the veal.

To cook the veal let the butter melt in the frying pan till it sizzles. You could now coat it in flour or polenta. Add your veal to the pan and fry on both sides for about a minute (this is, after all, the veal equivalent to the beef minute steak). For the ebst flavour you want a good caramelised colour - which I couldn't achieve here with the non-stick pan. Then remove the veal to a plate to rest leaving the butter and juices in the pan. The butter should be nut brown in colour by now - if not, you can let it cook a little longer - but too long and it will burn. Add strained lemon juice (I used ½ a lemon) and chopped parsley (although as we had chives growing on the altana I used those).



For more Venice dishes see here - http://www.thecotswoldfoodyear.com/search/label/venice