Tag: cutlet

The history of the cutlet – The stories of La Cucina Italiana – Italian Cuisine

For the 90 years of La Cucina Italiana, we retrace the origins of some of the most iconic foods together with Professor Philippe Daverio

Does the schnitzel fry in oil or butter?

This is not the only question to ask when talking about cutlet: it was born before Milanese cutlet or the wiener schnitzel, la Viennese cutlet? The debate is still on, but we are ready to satisfy all your curiosity about this beloved dish.
In the lesson of professor Philippe Daverio (which you can watch in the video above) we go into the history of the cutlet: let's talk about how and where the cutlet was born, what is the origin of its name, which are its most famous variants and much more!

Don't miss the other Stories in the company of Philippe Daverio, to celebrate together a wonderful birthday, 90 years of La Cucina Italiana!

More Milanese than this … Here is the cutlet by Antonello Colonna – Italian Cuisine

The famous Roman chef landed in Milan with an elegant restaurant-bistro and clear ideas. And in his card he pays tribute to one of the culinary symbols of the city. Here is the recipe

The opening of the Open Column in the center of Milan it is news because Antonello Colonna it's something more than a famous Roman chef. It is enough to read a definition of his site: "Maniac of art and architecture, Roman of soul and origin, he has made of the link with the territory his strong point". Indeed, its refined and original Resort & Spa – complete with a farm – located in the heart of the Roman hills, immersed in the natural park of Labìco. When he opened it, in 2012, it was a return to the origins as his brilliant career – complete with a Michelin star for two venues – began in 1985 in a family-run restaurant in Labìco, which he quickly brought to the top of the restaurant business before Lazio and then national. A place where you entered by a red door, which later became the symbol of that traditional-home cooking that Colonna has exalted over time, not only in the Capital.

In the center of Milan

That is why it is natural to ask (and ask) how it ended up just a few meters from piazza Cordusio, abandoning his beloved Rome after closing – 12 years after the opening – the Open Column in the roof garden of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, the first example of a large restaurant within an Italian museum structure. "Since I was very young I often come to Milan, I never left it, I felt this international smell of a refined city, of style. A year ago, cooking for the opening of the Identità Golose Hub, I saw that they appreciated me here. And I could not resist the temptation to open here. When the opportunity presented itself, I seized it ". And he focused on a young team: the director Simone Dimitri, already seen by Trussardi and da Seta, the chef Alessio Sebastiani, who knows how to interpret the thought-column and Emanuele Sala, partner of Colonna and Dimitri, who is in charge of communication.

It is also a bar and bistro

The restaurant is in a newly renovated building, the entrance is in via Bassano Porrone, at number 8: the historic external walls have remained, while the interior is completely redesigned in a modern key. The restaurant, which also functions as a bar and bistro, with the non-stop kitchen open from 12 to 22, overlooking an inner courtyard, very quiet and where some tables have been placed to be used since it will not be cold. The environment is pleasant, the wines, lined up in a modern open cellar, are chosen in an unconventional paper. Given the extended time, mixology cannot be missed, entrusted to Mattia Battistelli in close collaboration with May, a cocktail-bar beloved by the Milanese. The menu includes about twenty dishes and a tasting menu with its classics. For the rest there are carbonara and lamb, mint tripe and pecorino cheese, the mythical cheese and pepper and the right homage to Milan, starting from the risotto and the cutlet that caught our attention. Too easy in his case to hit an amatriciana …

The cutlet recipe

And here we are at the preparation. We start from 250 grams of uncooked veal ("Italiana, matured by us for 7 days to facilitate the loss of water and make the meat more tender during cooking", explains the chef), which is breaded twice: the first with egg and bread, the second with eggs and bread panko. It is fried in clarified butter – with poached shallots and thyme – four minutes per side, continuously sprinkling with butter. Before serving, it is left to rest for 3 minutes at a temperature of 85º. The dish is completed by about 250 grams of potatoes cut into wedges and fried in clarified butter, a very classic Bernese sauce and the veal bottom which is enriched with lemon juice, to replace the habit of many who require the lemon to season the cutlet. A beautiful provocation, Colonna … «No, I don't want to teach anyone anything. Arrival in Milan on tiptoe, I can't care less about it of gourmet or contemporary dishes: I just want to make a good cuisine. And I am not proud of anything, for heaven's sake. But my schnitzel is not bad. And do you know why? It is the classic, Milanese, immortal … .

the three versions of the cutlet – Italian Cuisine

At the Antica Osteria di Ronchettino it is fried only with clarified butter for an imperial 2kg version, an elephant ear or a high version. The realm of the cutlet is Gratosoglio, where you don't eat "as it used to be". We eat a lot better

THE'Antica Osteria di Ronchettino it's really old. This seventeenth-century farmhouse on the outskirts of Gratosoglio is said to have been a post house and even Napoleon stopped there to stay overnight. In the history of Milan, over the years, the presence of a bakery is attested, then a butcher's shop and, finally, a trattoria. At the beginning of the nineties it was a bar-sandwich shop, then the activity was taken over by the Angelillo family and became the scene of cabaret shows in the golden years of the Derby and of Milanese comedy. Then twenty years ago we change direction and the Ronchettino becomes in effect a typical Milanese tavern, with a "home" kitchen made of mondeghili, of cassoeula, of Milanese tripe, risottos and the inevitable cutlet. The Antica Osteria di Ronchettino is welcoming, with many rooms and has always been well attended. He has never eaten badly, but in recent years he has eaten even better. Instead of sitting on their laurels and falling back on makeshift cooks, Patrizia and her children Alessia and Francesco chose to rely on a chef with experience in starred kitchens.

You need a chef to make tradition

"If we want everything to remain as it is, everything must change". It seems the philosophy of the Leopardian memory applied by the Angelillo, because the tradition is still there, but only in appearance equal to itself. Everything is strictly home-made, the raw materials (for real) with prudence and perseverance, the cooking techniques governed by safe hands. The Milanese landscape of the so-called traditional trattorias is dominated by former dishwashers transformed into cheap cooks and historic signs that offer quaint ingredients in picturesque rooms. The Milanese paradox is that eating a good schnitzel and a good yellow risotto is almost impossible. The cutlets cook in a deep fryer, not in clarified butter, and the risotto is toasted and pre-cooked, awaiting the order. Okay so, few realize it and many prefer to pay less than eat better. That serving a chef with a name and surname to cook nerves seems a contradiction: but it is not. At the Ronchettino they have made a counter-current choice, which bears fruit (the room with 110 seats always full, for example, lunch and dinner) and the quality is palpable. The chef Federico Sisti has not changed the menu, introduced mini-portions of hunger or creative and useless suggestions. In the best way he has carried out traditional recipes for an optimal result; and this does not always mean by the procedure of the past.

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The menu almost like it used to be

Warm salad of veal nervetti with borlotti beans and Tropea red onion (12 €), Mondeghili alla Milanese (14 €), Carnaroli Rice Reserve San Massimo alla Milanese creamed with roast marrow (15 €), dessert for 8 €, including classic of the house, the "Pastrocchio" by Ronchettino, a chocolate Bavarian cream with amaretti, peach puree and chantilly cream. The iconic dishes are complemented by some “off-menu” proposals – renamed Fuori Milano – made with fresh products chosen on the basis of the periodicity of the market and of their intuitions. Like a high version of the classic cutlet.

Fry like a Milanese

Fried in Milan is not made in oil, period. It is done in clarified butter, in a pan and slowly. And here at Ronchettino the fried foods are a triumph. We start with a Milanese mixed Fry of sweetbreads, brains and mondeghilli and continue with the cutlet, offered in three versions: Orecchia d'Elefante di calf (28 €), Alta with Milanese sweetbreads and mashed potatoes (24 €) or Imperial for 4 people, weighing about 2 kg and portioned directly at the table (60 €). Skeptics? Try the mondeghili: fried in clarified butter and smaller than the traditional ones, but far softer, creamy and succulent. If on the schnitzel to proclaim "the best" would trigger the war, on the mondeghili there is no doubt. The best are theirs.