What’s for dinner? Veal Parmigiana!

One of my favorite dishes to order in a restaurant is Veal Parmigiana.  If you’ve never had veal, it is delicious.  The texture is similar to beef, but it has a very mild, tender flavor and when you bread it and put red sauce and melted cheese on top, it is absolutely wonderful!  As much as I love to order Veal Parmigiana when I’m out, it is something that I’ve never made at home.  But, a couple of weeks ago, veal was on sale at the grocery store (you’re probably figuring out, I’m ALL about finding a good sale).  So, I thought to myself, “I’m going to make some of my own Veal Parmigiana” and I bought some veal cube steaks and threw them in the freezer to have on hand when I had time to make it.

So, last night was veal night! The method I used to make the veal was the same one I use for making breaded chicken breasts.  Although, I did do a couple of things differently, I used plain panko bread crumbs and added garlic powder and fresh parsley instead of using Italian style panko. I did this mainly because plain panko was what I had on hand.  Also, since the cut of veal was a cube steak, it was already thin, so I didn’t need to pound it out.

So, you may be wondering, how did it turn out?  It turned out great!  Nicole’s boyfriend, Nate, was over for dinner and he had never had veal before and he thought it was really quite good.  The rest of the family thought it was pretty good, as well.  Let’s just say everyone belonged to the clean plate club last night!

The whole menu I made last night was:

• Veal Parmigiana with spaghetti
• Field Greens Salad
• Grilled Italian garlic bread

Veal Parmigiana

• 4-6 veal cube steaks (about 4 oz each)
• 1 cup plain panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh Italian parsley, plus more for garnish
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• fresh cracked pepper
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 4 cups marinara sauce
• 1- 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzerella (I use reduced fat) or 8 oz fresh mozzerella
• 1 box spaghetti (I like to use Barilla Plus multigrain pasta)

Preheat broiler on high.
Cook spaghetti according to package directions

Meanwhile, in a shallow dish, combine bread crumbs, parmesan, parsley, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Place eggs and flour each in their own shallow dish.

Coat each piece of veal first with the flour, then the egg and finally the bread crumbs.

Preheat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat.  Make sure you let the oil get nice and hot, once you start cooking the veal, you can back off the temperature if you need to.  Once the oil is hot, saute the veal for 4 minute on each side.  You may have to do this in batches, you don’t want to crowd the meat.  Put the cooked veal on a cookie sheet and cover with foil to keep warm.

While veal is cooking, heat up your spaghetti sauce.  Once all of the veal is cooked and on the cookie sheet, top with about 1/4 cup, or so, of spaghetti sauce and about 1/4 cup of mozzerella or a couple of slices if using fresh mozzerella.  Put under the broiler until cheese is melted and turning golden brown.  Toss cooked spaghetti with the rest of the sauce.

Place some of the spaghetti and sauce mixture in a shallow bowl, place a piece of veal on the spaghetti and sprinkle the chopped parsley over the top.

ENJOY!