How to prepare one bacon and egg or one vegetarian cutlet? We know, to say so is almost blasphemous, but the trend to revisit classic dishes of the vegetarian tradition, replacing the meat with vegetables or vegetables, should not be underestimated.

For those who are not content to simply call them "pasta with vegetables and eggs" and "fried breaded vegetables", here are the tips of La Scuola de la Cucina Italiana to make vegetarian dishes as close as possible to the carbonara and the schnitzel.

The first thing to do is to identify them strengths and understand how to replicate them.

Vegetarian carbonara: browning is everything

Pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower, savoy cabbage, zucchini, peppers, celeriac, Jerusalem artichokes. In place of the pillow we can use any vegetables, obviously following the seasonality of the ingredients: the most important thing is that it is very consistent, to get as close as possible to the crunchiness of roasted bacon.
The fundamental step will therefore remain the searing, to be done strictly in the pan with the oil, so as to make the vegetables crunchy, but above all more tasty.

Once the vegetables are browned, we can add the pasta to the pan, to finish cooking, and add the egg mixture (or just egg yolk), pecorino and pepper only outside the fire. An egg each is the recommended amount.
If you use softer vegetables, such as aubergines, or mushrooms for example, the advice is to add them only at the last moment, to maintain consistency.

To learn the secrets of classic carbonara, we look forward to the Regional Cuisine course: Lazio.

Vegetarian cutlet: a perfect breading

To deceive guests with a vegetarian schnitzel it is important not to mistake the breading.

Also in this case they are preferable vegetables more consistent and callose, such as pumpkin, celeriac, eggplant, porcini mushroom or cardoncello, potatoes or zucchini, cut into slices of at least 1 cm. To be sure to reach the right internal cooking, you can blanch the vegetables in boiling salted water for a few minutes so as to finish cooking only during frying. This procedure is not recommended for mushrooms or aubergines, because they would absorb the water.
Alternatively you can use a mix of legumes to taste, potatoes and breadcrumbs smoothies, making sure to create a well-compact dough.

As we said, the prerogative of a cutlet is the breading: the classic one is made with flour, egg and breadcrumbs. The flour is used to create a base, so that the egg adheres to the chosen ingredient. In this case it is even more important, since we use a smooth ingredient like vegetables.
If you also use ingredients that melt during cooking, like cheese, it is useful to make one double breading (the order to follow is: flour-egg-bread-egg-bread). In this way the breading will be thicker and no liquids will escape.
To respect the tradition, you can not fry in the clarified butterjust like the perfect one Milanese cutlet (to be discovered at the Milan course in the plate).

See the complete schedule of our courses here.

Texts by Alessandro Pirollo