Best Veal Roast Stuffed With Spinach Pancetta And Frittata Recipes

PAN-ROASTED VEAL STUFFED WITH SPINACH

Steps:

• Remove any large, thick stems from the spinach and rinse the leaves in cold water. Put the spinach in a pot with just the water that clings to the leaves and sprinkle with salt. Cover and cook over medium-high heat until all the spinach is wilted. Drain in a colander and press with a large spoon to remove as much water as possible.
• Lay the veal flat and trim the excess fat (do not remove all of it, or the roast will be too dry when done). Spread the spinach over the veal and add the garlic cloves evenly spaced apart. Roll up the veal jelly-roll fashion and tie it securely with kitchen twine.
• Put the butter and vegetable oil in a heavy braising pan that will hold the veal comfortably and place it over high heat. When the oil and butter are hot, put in the veal and brown it well on all sides. Season with salt and pepper, then add the wine. Allow the wine to bubble for 1 to 2 minutes to evaporate the alcohol and use a wooden spoon to loosen the tasty bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the tomatoes. When they begin to bubble, lower the heat so that the contents of the pan cook at a gentle but steady simmer. Cover the pan with the lid slightly askew and cook until the meat is tender when pierced with a fork, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Turn the meat from time to time and add a little water to the pan if all the liquid evaporates before the veal is done.
• When ready to serve, cut the veal in slices about 1/2 inch thick and remove the twine. If the sauce in the pan needs to be reduced, raise the heat and cook until it is thick enough to coat a spoon. Arrange the veal slices on a platter and pour the hot sauce over them. Serve at once.

STUFFED VEAL ROAST

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Place the mushrooms, the 1/2-box defrosted spinach, leaves from the rosemary sprigs, olives, orange zest, and lemon zest into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse to combine to a paste.
• Untie the roast. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Spread the stuffing paste evenly over the surface of the veal, generously covering it.
• Reroll the roast and tie it just tightly enough to secure; don't tie too tightly or the filling will all ooze out. The filling will be visible.
• Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the veal roast and sear on all sides until the meat is a deep golden-brown. Place the seared roast into a roasting pan.
• In a small bowl, mix the honey, apricot preserves, and mustard. Rub all the meat surfaces with a thick coating of the apricot-honey mixture, reserving some mixture. Bake for 1 hour, covered. Remove the roast from the oven and baste with remaining apricot-honey mixture. Return to the oven, uncovered, for 15 more minutes. Allow the roast to stand for 10 minutes before slicing. The roast should be juicy and slightly pink in the center.

VEAL ROLLS STUFFED WITH SPINACH AND GRUYèRE

Steps:

• Mash anchovy paste into 4 tablespoons butter in a bowl until combined. Gently pound cutlets to slightly less than 1/8 inch thick between 2 sheets of plastic wrap with flat side of a meat pounder or with a rolling pin. Pat cutlets dry and season lightly with salt and pepper, then spread 1 1/2 teaspoons anchovy butter over top of each cutlet. (You will have a little butter left over.) Sprinkle 1/4 cup cheese over anchovy butter, leaving a 1/4-inch border, then arrange spinach leaves, overlapping in 1 layer, to cover cutlets. Working with 1 cutlet at a time, arrange with a short side nearest you and roll up tightly, then secure with a wooden pick.
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F.
• Pat rolls dry. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a 12-inch ovenproof heavy skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté veal, turning occasionally, until golden on all sides, about 4 minutes total. Transfer skillet to oven and bake veal until just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer veal with tongs to a platter (reserve skillet) and keep warm, covered.
• Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet, then add wine and deglaze skillet by boiling (on stovetop) over high heat, scraping up brown bits, until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, then add any juices accumulated on platter and swirl in remaining 2 tablespoons butter (not remaining anchovy butter). Cook over low heat until incorporated. Stir in parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

STUFFED BREAST OF VEAL

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in the mushrooms, and cook for 1 or 2 minutes until they begin to soften. Add the carrot, celery, and onion; cook and stir until the carrot begins to soften, 5 to 10 minutes. Turn the heat off, and stir in the garlic and parsley; set aside.
• Beat the eggs and water with salt and pepper in a large bowl. Fold in the bread cubes until they absorb the egg mixture, then fold in the cooked vegetables; set aside. Cut a deep pocket into the veal breast with a long, narrow knife. Stuff the veal with the bread and vegetable mixture, and season with paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Place onto a roasting pan, and cover loosely with aluminum foil.
• Bake in preheated oven for 3 1/2 hours, then remove the foil, baste with pan drippings, and continue cooking 30 minutes more. When done, tent with aluminum foil, and allow the veal breast to rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

ROAST STUFFED BREAST OF VEAL

Steps:

• Put the bread cubes in a small bowl and pour the milk over them; toss together, and let the bread soak up the milk, tossing the cubes every few minutes so they moisten evenly.
• Meanwhile, put the mortadella, onion, carrot, and celery pieces in the food processor, fitted with the steel blade, and chop them together into fine bits, processing continuously for about 1/2 minute; scrape down the sides of the bowl, and process briefly until everything is a pastelike mix.
• Pour the olive oil into a 10- or 12-inch skillet, and set over medium-high heat; scrape in the chopped stuffing and spread it in the pan. As it starts to sizzle, lower the heat considerably, stir, and sauté gently for 3 or 4 minutes to bring out the flavors-don't let the stuffing get crusty or colored.
• Squeeze the bread cubes firmly by handfuls to get out excess milk, and scatter them over the stuffing. Still cooking over low heat, break up the bread clumps with a spoon or spatula, and stir to incorporate completely. Mix in the chopped prunes, and cook them with the stuffing for a minute or so. Take the pan off the heat and scrape the stuffing into a bowl.
• Let the stuffing cool, then stir in the pine nuts, grated cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, and the beaten egg, mixing thoroughly.
• At this time, set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 400°.
• As I explain in the box (page 359), and as you can see in the photos, your stuffing method will vary with the size and cut of veal breast (and your own preferences). Follow these general steps to prepare the breast: Rinse and dry it thoroughly. Check the breast for pockets of fat and remove. There is often a clump of fat on the bony side, where you will see a flap of meat partially covering the ribs. Lift this flap, and cut away the fat hidden inside. Do not remove the skin on the bottom-either from the ribs or the meat flap-as it helps hold the breast together.
• This flap of meat, under the ribs, is the one I use to wrap around the stuffed breast in the photos. Cut it off, shave off the silver skin from both sides, then pound it with a meat hammer or tenderizer until it is paper-thin, like carpaccio. And there's your wrapper!
• To stuff: Follow the method shown in the photos, first cutting a pocket in the meaty layers on top of the ribs, then filling it with your stuffing. Enclose the breast and exposed stuffing with the pounded veal flap (or use bacon strips or prosciutto slices), and tie securely with kitchen twine.
• If you have a whole veal-breast tip cut, you need only slice open the pocket on the wide side down to the tip and push the stuffing in toward the closed tip. Then tie the roast closed.
• Put the tied breast in the roasting pan and sprinkle the salt all over, patting the crystals into the meat. Pour on the olive oil and rub it all over. Set the breast, rib side down, in the center of the pan.
• Put all the chopped vegetables, the prunes, and the seasonings (except the salt) in a big bowl, and toss with the 3 tablespoons of olive oil. If your broth is unsalted, add 1 teaspoon salt to the vegetables-use less salt or no salt if your broth is salted already. Scatter the vegetables and seasonings around the veal in the pan. Pour in the white wine and 2 cups or more broth or water, so the cooking liquid is about 1/2 inch deep in the pan.
• Cover the pan with one or more long sheets of aluminum foil, arching the foil if necessary to keep it from touching the meat and vegetables. Crimp the foil around the rim of the pan, and press it tightly against the sides all around, sealing the veal and vegetables in a tent.
• Set the pan in the oven and roast for an hour, then bring the roasting pan up front and carefully remove the foil. The veal should be lightly browned and the juices bubbling. Baste with the juices, turn the vegetables over, and push the pan back into the oven.
• Roast for another hour or so, uncovered, basting every 20 minutes and rotating the pan back to front for even cooking. The top of the veal breast should be brown and crusty, the vegetables lightly browned as well, and the liquid considerably reduced. Remove from the oven.
• Lift out the veal breast with a large spatula, or by holding it with towels, and rest it on a platter while you start the sauce.
• With a potato masher, crush the cooked vegetables in the juices, breaking them up into little bits. Set the sieve over the saucepan, and pour everything from the pan through it, pressing the solids against the sieve with a big spoon to release their liquid, then discard the remains. Let the juices rest, and when the fat rises to the top, skim it off. (Putting the pan in a bowl of ice water will help the fat to congeal, if you are in a hurry.) Set the saucepan over high heat, bring the juices to a boil, and reduce them, uncovered, until they've thickened to a syrupy sauce.
• Meanwhile, return the veal to the roasting pan and pour any accumulated juices into the saucepan. Baste the veal one more time with hot juices, and put it back in the oven to roast for 30 minutes more, until it is dark and crusty on top and the sides are browned as well.
• To make sure the stuffing is cooked too, insert an instant-read thermometer into the stuffing layer. At 160°, it is ready.
• Remove the veal from the oven, and let it rest for 10 minutes.
• Cut away the kitchen twine. Remove the ribs, loosening them with a knife, and pulling them out one at a time while holding the roast steady.
• Slice crosswise into thick slices with a sharp, serrated knife. Lay the slices on a warm platter, showing off the stuffing layer, and moisten with the sauce. Pass more sauce at the table.
• *Cut them in small pieces, as listed, for sauce. To serve roast vegetables, cut them as described on page 344.
• This stuffing is excellent for turkey and chicken.
• The meat business has changed in my lifetime. Most retail butchers don't get meat in large quarters and "primal" cuts that they skillfully divide any way we ask. Supermarket meat departments, I've found, only get pre-cut sections of the most popular meats, which require minimal cutting before they go out in the case.
• Unfortunately, the ideal veal breast for this recipe is not an item much in demand. It may take dedicated searching to find a butcher in your area who can fabricate the perfect piece: a 5-pound bone-in breast cut, from the tip. That's the very end of the breast, farthest from the front leg, and it has two advantages: lots of cartilage, which adds flavor and richness, and a naturally closed pocket at the tip, which makes stuffing easy.
• On the day we tested this recipe and took these photos, I couldn't get a breast tip anywhere. The piece shown here (which came from a Manhattan supermarket) is only 3 1/2 pounds and cut from the middle, not the closed end of the breast. As you can see, the pocket that I cut for the stuffing is open on both ends.
• I wondered, though, how would I keep the stuffing in? My first idea was to wrap bacon or prosciutto slices around the openings and tie them in place. But we didn't have any in the kitchen that day-and there was no time for shopping. So I did something quite acceptable in cooking-I improvised. I took a flap of veal meat that is hidden under the ribs, next to the cutting board in the photos. I trimmed and pounded it and made a sheet that covered the holes neatly. Tied in place, the patch worked fine. No stuffing was lost, and we enjoyed our roast and delicious sauce for lunch and supper too.
• One of the important-and challenging-lessons in cooking is that we cooks learn to make do with what we have.

VEAL ROLLS WITH PANCETTA

Steps:

• Arrange scaloppine on waxed paper or plastic. Sprinkle veal with parsley, salt and pepper. Place a thin layer of cheese and a few slices of roasted pepper on each scaloppine. Roll veal and wrap each roll with a slice of pancetta. Secure with toothpicks.
• Fry veal rolls in a thin layer of extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, until golden all over and pancetta is crisp, 5 or 6 minutes. Remove from pan to warm platter. Return skillet to heat. Add a drizzle of oil and cracked garlic. Wilt spinach in pan, add a touch of wine or vermouth to lift drippings and combine them with greens. Using tongs, place a bed of spinach on each dinner plate and top with veal rolls. Serve immediately.

VEAL STUFFED WITH A MOSAIC OF VEGETABLES

Steps:

• To prepare the veal: Cut the strings or netting if the roast is tied (as it usually is), and lay out the meat in a slab. Trim off excess fat on both sides and any membranes or silver skin that cover the muscles. Turn the slab so the inside (where bones have been removed) faces up-it will be a rough rectangle of uneven thickness. The next step, butterflying, will enlarge and even out the slab to a nearly square sheet of meat of even thinness.
• With a long, sharp knife, slice into the thickest part of the meat, cutting from the middle of the slab toward the edge almost all the way through-then open up the flap you've created, like opening a book. Pound the butterflied section of meat to even it out. In the same way, butterfly portions of meat on other parts of the slab to spread and thin the veal, pounding each section after you slice and unfold it. Butterfly small mounds of thick muscle where necessary to thin it, or-if a hole opens in the sheet-butterfly an adjacent portion of meat and use the flap to cover the hole. Continue the gradual butterflying until the veal is about 16 inches on the long sides and about 12 inches on the short edges-roughly square and about 1/2 inch thick. Cover the veal with plastic wrap while you prepare the stuffing frittata.
• Pour the olive oil into the skillet, and set over medium-high heat. Toss in the sliced onions and carrot matchsticks; stir and cook for a couple of minutes, until sizzling, then toss in the zucchini and red-pepper strips. Sprinkle on 1/2 teaspoon of salt and several grinds of black pepper, and cook, stirring and tossing, for 5 minutes, until the vegetables are lightly caramelized but still al dente. Scatter in the peas and the spinach leaves, turning them over with the other vegetables until they start to wilt and release their liquid. Continue to cook the vegetables, stirring frequently, until the excess water in the pan has evaporated.
• Meanwhile, beat the raw eggs with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, then whisk in the grated cheese and milk. When the spinach is cooked and dry, pour the egg mixture into the skillet. Cook, turning and scrambling the eggs with the vegetables, until the curds are set but still a bit wet and glistening. Remove the pan from the heat, and let cool briefly.
• Uncover the flattened veal sheet, and season the top with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Spread the vegetable frittata in an even mound the length of the veal, leaving several inches of the meat uncovered on both long sides, and an inch or so on the ends, to form flaps. Arrange the frittata so the vegetable sticks are distributed evenly and somewhat aligned lengthwise to give a mosaic effect when you slice the cooked roll. Set the hard-boiled eggs in a line nestled in the vegetable frittata. Again, for the prettiest cross-section, align the eggs end to end. (If you can't fit in all the hard-cooked eggs, enjoy any extras in another dish!)
• Fold one long flap of the veal over the filling, then the other, enclosing the eggs in a long oval. Starting at one end, tie the veal closed with loops of twine, spaced about 3 inches apart: use one long piece of twine to form a connected series of loops, or make several tight loops, to secure the roll all along its length. Tuck the open ends of the veal against the roll, and tie another length of twine lengthwise around it, so it is completely closed.
• Spread out the cheesecloth, set the meat on one of the short edges, and roll it up tightly in the cloth. Twist the cloth on each end of the roll-like a candy wrapper, tightening it up against the meat-and secure the twisted ends with twine. (If there's lots of excess cheesecloth on the ends, cut it off.) Finally, tie three or four tight loops around the cloth-wrapped roll along its length, further compacting and securing it.
• To poach the veal: Drop the chunks of onion, carrot, and celery, the bay leaves, and the 1/3 cup salt in the big saucepan, and set the tied roll on top. Pour in enough cold water to submerge the meat completely, cover the pot, and heat the poaching liquid to a gentle boil. Adjust the heat to maintain a steady, gentle bubbling, and let the veal cook, tightly covered, for 2 hours. The meat should remain completely covered while it cooks gently. Rotate the roll carefully in the pot once or twice, add water if necessary, and adjust the heat as needed.
• Turn off the heat after 2 hours, and lift the roll out of the poaching liquid (use tongs to grasp the twisted ends). Let the water drain off, then set the veal on a wide sheet pan or cutting board on an even surface. Place another sheet pan on top of the meat, and weight it down with your big saucepan (you can discard the poaching liquid first) or heavy cans or other objects. Center the weights atop the veal roll so it is evenly compacted.
• Keep the veal pressed for an hour or longer, until it cools to room temperature. Remove the weights, and pour off any liquid that has collected in the pan. Cut off the outer twine, and carefully unwrap the cheesecloth from around the meat; snip the inner loops of twine and remove it all. Transfer the veal to a cutting board, taking care to keep it intact.
• When you're ready to serve, slice the veal crosswise with a sharp knife, first cutting off one of the meaty end pieces (tomorrow's treat!), until you expose the colorful mosaic of stuffing. Slice as many pieces of cima as you'll serve-I like them about 2/3 inch thick-and arrange them overlapping on a platter. Or present individual portions, a slice or two on each plate, with spoonfuls of Salsa Verde alongside. Have bowls or goblets of Salsa Verde at the table, too.

STUFFED VEAL LOIN SERVED WITH FRESH SPINACH

Steps:

• Soak the mushroom in warm water for about 1 hour. Saute celery, carrot, onions, prosciutto and sage in butter over medium heat for about 4 minutes. Add cabbage and mushrooms and cook for 5 more minutes or until all the vegetables are tender. Add wine and let evaporate. Add raisins and a pinch of cinnamon. The stuffing should well cooked and with no liquid left. Clean the loin from the fat. Cut the loin in a half. With a butcher's knife make an incision lengthwise in the loin, that goes from one side to the other. Do the same with the other half. Stuff the loin with the cold stuffing, making sure to fill the loin evenly from one end to the other. Season the two pieces of loin with salt and pepper if you like. Wrap them in caul fat and butcher's twine. Saute the loin in butter or oil until golden brown and finish in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes. The temperature of the meat should be 120 degrees. The stuffing should be slightly warm. Let the veal rest for 10 minutes in a warm place before serving. We serve the loin sliced with spinach, simply sauteed in butter and pine nuts.

VEAL FORCEMEAT RECIPE - (5/5)

Steps:

• In a Dutch oven, over medium heat, add the oil. Season the veal with salt and pepper. When the oil is hot, add the veal, brown for 2 minutes. Add the onions, carrots, and celery. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté for 2 minutes. Add the garlic, tomatoes, peppercorns and stock. Bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for about 1 hour, or until very tender. Remove from the heat and cool completely. Strain the veal, reserving the liquid. In a food processor, fitted with a metal blade, add the veal and puree until smooth. Add the butter, bread crumbs and 1/2 cup of the reserved poaching liquid. Season with salt and pepper. This recipe yields about 2 cups.