When the wrong one is the right one: long cooked chicken cutlets with fontina

"When the wrong one is the right one."  Now, did you think that Annalena was going to talk to you about her past love life?    Ah no.  With the exception of the Guyman, that would be "when the wrong one is WRONGER THAN YOU THINK"   Oh, the stories, and that would be another blog, and yet more material for you all to assimilate.  No, ragazzi, today Annalena writes of "the dish that got away," and the one that was better.
One of the "go to" dishes in Annalena's repertoire, is something called "veal (or chicken) Val d'Aostana."  Named after the region of Italy which is in the alps and where the language is French rather than Italian, it involves breaded, fried cutlets, with slices of prosciutto and fontina, run under the broiler until the cheese melts.

A diet dish, yes?  Well, for reasons that are simple, yet complex, Annalena decided to make a variation on this last week.  See, she needed a dish that would both serve the Guyman and herself easily after Thursday night running (the Guyman), and torment of the music teacher (Annalena providing the torment, Tim providing the teaching), as well as feed the farmers on Saturday.  Her thoughts on this were, to buy chicken cutlets in bulk, prepare them as if for Val d'Aostana, and to layer them with tomato sauce, green leafy vegetables,  and fontina cheese.  And then, to bake, until a nice, cheesy, gooey mess resulted.  And that was the plan.

BUT.... see, the cheesy gooey mess resulted after a half an  hour of baking and Annalena thought she turned off the oven and allowed the dish to cool.

About a half hour later, smelling something deliciously caramelly and tomatoey, Annalena remarked  "did I forget to turn off the oven?"  Indeed, she had.  So the dish baked for an hour.  Instead of the creamy, almost pizza like topping, Annalena had a dark, mysterious layer on top, with a deeply carmelized smell.  But nothing looked burned.  

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.   Upon tasting, the dish, to Annalena's opinion, was better than she expected.  The chicken was tremendously tender, and while she could not taste the individual components, she did in fact taste a wonderfully complex mixture of flavors, that would have made her eat more, and more, and more of the dish.  But... she had worked out that day, with a substitute trainer, and was feeling the impact thereof (as she still is).  So, she restrained herself after 3 cutlets  (Laugh if you will.  She defies you to do better).  Here it comes.  It is a bit time consuming, but not really hard.    And while she provides the proportions for four pounds of cutlets, cut it back if you like.

Let us start with the cutlets.  They should be about 4 ounces each.  Annalena's package contained 8, which means they were twice as big as they should have been. Should this happen to you, cut the biggers in half, with a vertical cut, and then get a heavy surface, and pound them thin.  Then, dip them into seasoned flour (plain flour with a nice teaspoon of salt in it), then some beaten eggs, and then into seasoned breadcrumbs.  Replenish these supplies as you need to.  Breaded cutlets can remain on a cooking sheet until you're ready to fry.

When you are, used vegetable oil.  Spread out some paper towels to adsorb excess oil, and then add them to the pan, when the oil is hot.  Do not overcrowd them. Cook them until they are browned to your liking, and then let them drain (you need not worry about undercooking:  you're going to bake them for an hour, remember?). 

Now, start your oven to preheating, and use a temperature of 350.  Put a layer of tomato sauce down in a baking sheet.  You want it to be of a size that you will have no more than two layers of cutlets in it. 

After the tomato sauce, then add a layer of cutlets.  After that, some steamed, chopped, leafy greens. Annalena used Tuscan kale and beet greens, but this is one where you should use what you have.   Slice some fontina cheese over the greens.  For the four pounds of cutlets, Annalena used a full pound.  If you do not have fontina, you could use mozzarella.    Repeat this, and finish with a layer of cheese.

Now, into the oven, for an hour.  Unless you want the traditional sort of "parmagiana" look, then take it out after half an hour . Let it rest.  In fact, if you can, make this the night before, and warm it up before serving, with a simply cooked green vegetable (Annalena and the Guyman used sugar snap peas).

You need no starch with this meal, given the breadcrumbs. 

This is "home cooking" at its best, and the mistake turned into a success.  Make it your success this week, ragazzi, and enjoy it. 

Alla prossima.