Pounded Veal Cutlets with Roma (Rona) Tomato Salsa

The title is a perfect accompaniment to this recipe. Last Thursday, while visiting New York, I reconnected with a close friend of mine from High School. Rona Mark, a filmmaker whose latest piece was just accepted to two film festivals (the movie is called Strange Girls), and I found each other on Facebook. I swore I would never create a social networking page, but the pressure got to me and the opportunity to play Scrabulous with friend all over the world became a big lure.

Rona and I met for drinks and then she joined my friends and I for dinner. We had pasta, veal and a deliciously simple salad. The veal has been adapted from the Claretta Ristorante version, which is basically a pounded veal cutlet that is dredged in seasoned flour, lightly fried in olive oil for about 2 minutes on each side and topped with a mixture of Roma tomatoes, garlic, red onion, fresh oregano. The topping is dressed with Olio N'uovo and balsamic vinegar.

This is pretty easy to make and absolutely delicious.

Head to the meat man and pick up six veal cutlets. They can pound them down for you until they are very thin. Refrigerate and start making the Roma tomato topping.

- 8 Roma tomatoes
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/2 medium red onion finely diced
- 2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup Olio N'uovo (newly pressed olive oil)
- Kosher Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper to Taste

Combine tomatoes, garlic, onion and oregano into a bowl and mix well. Set aside. In a separate bowl add the vinegar and slowly whisk in the Olio N'uovo. Toss the dressing with the tomato mixture, add salt and pepper to taste and refrigerate for about an hour. Mix once or twice while in the refrigerator.

After an hour remove the veal cutlets from the refrigerator and place them onto a plate. Also remove the topping and bring to room temperature. Liberally coat the bottom of a saute pan with olive oil and turn onto medium heat. While the olive oil is heating season 2 cups of flour with 1 tbsp of salt and 1 tbsp of freshly ground black pepper, mix well. When the oil is heated (I throw in a small tsp of flour and if it sizzles the oil is ready) dredge one of the veal cutlets in the flour. Make sure to liberally coat each cutlet on both sides and place into the oil. Cook on both sides for about two minutes and remove onto a paper towel. Repeat until all cutlets are cooked.

Arrange the cutlets onto a platter, top with the tomato mixture and serve.