Sara Moulton | Chef, Cookbook Author, Television Personality

Tripe: How do you cook tripe?

Sara Moulton — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:22:03 +0000

Last week Randy asked me this about tripe, “I see this all of the time in the grocery store and I have to be honest, while it sort of scares me, it also fascinates me. Is there a way to cook this so that is actually tastes good? Is it healthy? It certainly is cheap.”

Tripe seems to be making a comeback in the culinary world. You can cook it to make delicious and very inexpensive dishes but it takes a bit of time. I immediately thought of my friend Jean Anderson and asked her for some information to help me answer his question. Jean has written about tripe in several of her cookbooks and told me that tripe is the lining of the stomach of ruminants such as sheep, goats, and beef cattle. Many people use the lining of the first three sections of the stomach but Jean recommends the lining of the second section, known as honeycomb tripe as well as pocket tripe from the lower end of the second section. She says that tripe is available pickled, canned, and fresh. Even the fresh tripe needs a lot of additional cooking. Purchase 1/4 to 1/2 pound of tripe per person to be served. When using fresh tripe, remove and discard all fat, rinse it thoroughly in cold water, and cut it into manageable pieces; although it has already been partially cooked, you will need to simmer it, covered, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours until it is tender before using it as directed in a recipe. You will find many delicious ways to serve tripe in Jean Anderson’s Foods of Portugal and The New Doubleday Cookbook. As for nutrition, it’s not a big hitter. A quarter pound of raw tripe contains 17 grams of protein, 4 1/2 grams of fat (2 1/3 grams of which are saturated), not carbohydrate or fiber, 306 milligrams of potassium, 52 milligrams of sodium and some trace minerals.

Jean Anderson’s Oven-Fried Chicken

Sara Moulton — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:47:05 +0000

Jean Anderson's Oven-Fried Chicken

This easy recipe from Sara Moulton Cooks at Home is ideal for entertaining. You can put it into the oven and it minds itself while you do other things. When I told my mentor and good buddy Jean Anderson that this book needed her chicken recipe — it’s become one of the most requested on Cooking Live — she floored me by replying that it wasn’t really her recipe. She had learned it when she was working at Ladies’ Home Journal and then adapted it for The Doubleday Cookbook. Still, I learned it from Jean and think of it as Jean Anderson’s Chicken, and I have never met a chicken lover who wasn’t nuts for it, kids and grown-ups alike. It is great served hot, cold, or at room temperature. It’d probably be great if you served it on the moon. A word to the wise: This is a high-calorie recipe, so you might want to save it for special occasions.
All you have to remember is melted garlic butter and a crumb mixture with a ratio of three parts fresh bread crumbs (page 347) to one part freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Dip the chicken pieces in the butter, then in the crumb mixture, then bake them. You can dress up this recipe by adding herbs to the crumb mixture, but I usually make it plain for the kids, they get nervous when they spot those little green flecks.
By the way, it is essential to use the real Parmigiano-Reggiano and to grate it yourself. Do not reach for that pregrated stuff in a can–it tastes like sawdust. If grating the cheese by hand seems like too much work, just cut some into chunks and throw them into the food processor with the metal blade. The result isn’t as fine as hand-grated cheese, but it works just dandy for this recipe.

Jean Anderson’s chicken is perfect for a crowd. It is a little messy to make (I usually end up breading my hands, too), but it is worth the mess, and you will become very popular.

Serves 4 to 6

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups fresh bread crumbs (page 347)
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
One 3 1/2-pound chicken, cut into 10 pieces (or all thighs, wings, or breasts if desired)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine the butter and garlic in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until the butter has melted. Pour into a large bowl and cool to room temperature.

Mix the bread crumbs, cheese, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and cool to room temperature. Dip each chicken piece, one at a time, into the melted garlic butter. Transfer to the bread crumb mixture and turn until coated on all sides.

Arrange the chicken in one flat layer on a large baking sheet. Drizzle on any of the remaining melted butter. Bake until lightly browned and just cooked through, 50 to 60 minutes.

Tomatoes: What is the best way to store fresh tomatoes?

Sara Moulton — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:30:15 +0000

Molly e-mailed the Kitchen Shrink that she had just harvested a lot of tomatoes from her garden and wondered what is the best way store them until she can use or process them.

Freshly picked tomatoes should be stored in a single layer, stem-side up, in a fairly cool location (about 55 degrees F) but not in the refrigerator. Divide them according to ripeness and use, freeze, or can the ripest within a day or so. Under-ripe tomatoes will ripen nicely in your kitchen as long as they haven’t been refrigerated or chilled in the garden. A fruit ripening bowl does a good job but a simple brown paper bag will work as well. Include an apple or pear to release the ethylene gas that promotes ripening, check the tomatoes daily, and remove and use them when they are ready to eat. Even those that are completely green will ripen but are also delicious fried green and used as a side dish or on a salad or sandwich. See Sara Moulton Cooks at Home, page 52 and Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals, page 87 .

Too Many Tomatoes

Sara Moulton — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:33:58 +0000

I never thought I could have too many tomatoes in my house. And I mean the summer time- grown at a local farmer’s market -or in your back yard -kind of tomato. But that is the state I find myself in right now. We are on vacation at my parent’s old farmhouse in northeastern Massachusetts and for some reason every last tomato that was planted on Memorial day weekend (when the whole backyard vegetable garden is always planted) decided to ripen at exactly the same moment. We have big tomatoes, plum tomatoes, golden and red cherry tomatoes and quite a few already rotten tomatoes on the vine. I feel like I Love Lucy in that candy factory trying to wrap up the small pieces of candy before they escape from her down the conveyor belt. I have been reduced to randomly chucking cherry tomatoes in my mouth at all times of the day just to decrease the tomato population in any way I can.

There are many reasons this situation is upsetting – the fear of wasting food, the challenge of coming up with a million tomato dishes, the time it takes to make a million tomato dishes when I am trying to focus on other summertime projects…- but the biggest reason is that there are only four of us at the farm right now and we had nothing to do with the planting or nurturing of these tomatoes (all the way down to the careful ripening of the compost that is mixed in with the soil). There are 21 other family members who come to this farm throughout the summer and not one of them is going to eat a family farm tomato. I feel guilty.

I have been pondering this terrible situation as the tomatoes sit in baskets on the kitchen counter, a few getting taken over by random bugs as the days pass and I have finally come up with a solution. Since the four of us are pretty much tired of eating fresh tomatoes out of the garden (yes, that has happened, never in a million years did I think it would) I am just going to make an enormous batch of tomato sauce. I am going to start with the beefsteaks and cook them down with onion and garlic and then puree them. And then I am going to add chopped up plums and coarsely chopped cherries (pulsed in the food processor, there are way too many to chop by hand) and let them cook a bit. Finally I am going to freeze the whole mess in several batches for various members of this family to enjoy in the dead of winter.

Maybe there will still be some tomato sauce in the freezer at Christmas when we return to enjoy the holiday with the greater Moulton family. I can invent a Christmas pasta dish. Maybe by then I will be in the mood for a recipe made with fresh tomatoes.

Fried Green Tomatoes with Ranch Dressing and Yellow Cherry Tomato Salad

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:26:51 +0000

Tomato lovers, it doesn’t get much better than this. In this easy summer time recipe from Sara Moulton Cooks at Home you start with a base of breaded and fried green tomato slices, top it off with a little salad of cherry tomatoes, and spoon on some homemade ranch dressing. Done. Just make sure all the tomatoes are fresh and in season.

Ingredients
For the salad:
12 to 15 yellow cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint leaves
3 fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Additional kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

For the dressing:
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 scallions, white part only, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Additional kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

For the tomatoes:
3 medium green tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
Kosher salt to taste
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Additional freshly ground black pepper to taste

Serves 6 to 8

Begin with the salad. Sprinkle the tomatoes with the salt and drain in a large strainer for 10 to 15 minutes. Stir the tomatoes gently with the mint, basil, and parsley. Add the lemon juice and olive oil. Stir again and season with salt and pepper to taste. You should have about 1 cup.

To prepare the dressing, mince the garlic, then crush it with the flat side of a large knife. Add the salt and work into a coarse paste. Transfer to a small bowl and add the mayonnaise, buttermilk, lemon juice, scallions, parsley, and chives. Whisk in the olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and blend. You should have about 1 1/4 cups. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

For the green tomatoes, sprinkle with salt on both sides, drain in a colander for 10 to 15 minutes, and pat dry. Working in 3 batches, heat 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Dip 6 tomato slices, one slice at a time, in the cornmeal mixture and gently shake off the excess. Cook slices in one layer until lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Drain slices on paper towels and wipe the skillet clean with a paper towel. Make two more batches with the remaining butter, oil, tomatoes, and cornmeal mixture in the same manner, wiping out the skillet between batches.

To serve, decoratively arrange 3 or 4 of the tomato slices overlapping on a plate. Drizzle with a small amount of the dressing and garnish with a spoonful of the salad. Serve at room temperature.

Peppers: What is the easiest way to roast peppers?

Sara Moulton — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 20:52:55 +0000

Erin e-mailed the Kitchen Shrink that she wanted to make a recipe that called for roasted peppers and she wondered if there is an easy way to make them.

There are a number of ways to roast peppers; all are easy. I used roasted red peppers a number of times in Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals and included these instructions on page 30 of the book to help readers make them. If you have a gas stove, turn on one burner to a low flame for every four peppers you want to roast. Arrange the peppers directly on the grate over the flame and turn them often using tongs until they are blackened on all sides. If you have an electric stove, place a rack 4 inches from your broiler’s heat source and preheat the broiler to high. Place the peppers on the rack and char them as directed above. Either method will take 10 to 15 minutes. Then transfer the peppers to a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and set aside until they are cool enough to touch. Working over a bowl to catch the juice, quarter each pepper, discard the stem and seeds; pull off and discard the skin and use the peppers as directed in your recipe. Don’t rinse the peeled peppers as that removes some of the flavor. The juices you have caught in the bowl are a delicious addition to soups and sauces.

Portobello Burgers with Red Pepper and Gorgonzola

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:13:32 +0000

photograph by Elizabeth Watt

I enjoy cooking and serving vegetable main dishes all year long. I love to let the vegetables shine in the center of the plate. You’ll find a whole chapter of meatless recipes in all three of my cookbooks. My Portobello Burgers are absolutely wonderful meatless sandwiches. In the center is a marinated and grilled Portobello mushroom cap. It is filled with melted Gorgonzola, topped with roasted red peppers, and lathered with just a little mayonnaise, the whole of it pinned down between slices of toasted garlic bread. What could be better? If you don’t love blue cheese, substitute any strongly flavored melting cheese. Whenever and however you make it, no one’s going to miss the beef.

Makes 4 servings
Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Total preparation time: 30 minutes plus 1 hour marinating

Ingredients
4 large Portobello mushrooms, stems removed
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 garlic cloves, minced, plus 1 whole clove, peeled and halved
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
2 small red bell peppers
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
Eight 1/2-inch-thick slices rustic country bread, cut from a 6-inch-high loaf
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup shredded fresh basil

Wipe the mushroom caps clean and use a small spoon to scrape out the gills on the underside. Place 3 tablespoons of the vinegar in a small bowl and whisk in the minced garlic, thyme, and 1/4 cup olive oil. Divide the mixture between 2 large plastic bags with resealable closures. Put 2 mushroom caps in each bag and seal, pressing out the excess air. Marinate the mushrooms at room temperature for at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours, turning the bags often.

Prepare a charcoal fire and let the coals burn down to a gray ash. Lightly oil the grill. Set the peppers on top and grill, turning often, until the skins are blackened on all sides, 10 to15 minutes. (Alternatively, preheat the broiler to high and place the broiling pan 4 to 5 inches from the source of heat. Set the peppers on the pan and broil, turning often, until blackened on all sides, 12 to 15 minutes.) Place the charred peppers in a large bowl and let stand, covered with plastic wrap, until cool enough to handle. Peel, core, and seed the peppers and then cut into thin strips. Toss the strips with salt and pepper.

Remove the mushrooms from the marinade, pat dry, and season with salt and pepper. Place the mushrooms cap sides up on the grill and cook until dark and slightly softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn and grill the other side until tender, 2 to 3 minutes longer. (Alternatively, the mushrooms can be grilled in a hot, well-seasoned ridged grill pan over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes per side, but grill the bread first; see below.) When the mushrooms are almost tender, sprinkle a quarter of the cheese into the cavity of each cap.

While the mushrooms are grilling, brush the bread with olive oil on both sides. Grill until lightly toasted, turning often, 3 to 5 minutes. Rub one side of each slice with the cut garlic clove while hot. (If using a grill pan, grill the bread first and then the mushrooms.)

Add the reserved tablespoon of vinegar to the mayonnaise. Stir well and season with salt and pepper. Spread on the garlic-rubbed side of each slice of bread. Top half the bread slices with a mushroom cap, equal amounts of the peppers, and basil. Place the other bread slices on top. Cut the “burgers” in half and serve.

Sweetener: What is Simple Syrup and How Do You Make It?

Sara Moulton — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 01:05:21 +0000

Terri recently e-mailed me to ask “What is Simple Syrup and how do you use it?” My favorite recipe for lemonade immediately came to mind (You’ll find it in Sara Moulton Cooks at Home.) and here is my answer.

Simple syrup is an old-fashioned secret for sweetening things such as lemonade, iced tea, and other beverages or even your breakfast cereal. It may also be brushed over pastries to give them a shine or drizzled over fresh fruit for a quick dessert. It eliminates the bother of stirring beverages or fresh fruit to dissolve added sugar and is the secret ingredient in many of the hot new mixed drinks. You won’t find it in the market but it is so easy to make, you will want to keep some in your fridge all the time. Just combine 1 cup sugar with 1/2 cup cold water in a small saucepan. Cook it over medium-low heat, stirring gently, just until the sugar dissolves. Cool it completely, then you can store it in a glass jar in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

The Orange County Fair

Sara Moulton — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:58:26 +0000

young lady with her two chickens

Two weekends ago I went to my first ever county fair. I really did not know that this kind of old fashioned America still existed (I’m too much of a city kid!) and I have to say I was delighted. There was a big ferris wheel towering over the whole scene and many other much scarier big rides, as well as arts and crafts booths, tons of fried everything and real live animals!

After I settled into the Mission Tortilla stage and checked out the ingredients for my two demos I decided to tour the fair. I was most interested in the animals and luckily we were right next to the livestock tents. I don’t see a wide variety of animals in New York City except for squirrels, small birds, the occasional sea gull (which always makes me so happy, it reminds me that Manhattan is actually on the ocean), mice, rats, and pigeons, aka flying rats. If I had time I might have gone to the petting zoo but there was no time so I cruised the livestock tents. I was shocked to find card carrying teenagers tending to these cows/sheep/goats/chickens. Apparently the animals are part of their high school projects. How impressive! That is not what you will find New York City teenagers occupying their time with.

The Mission tortilla stage was located right in the middle of the food booths and smack across from the most frightening of those booths: “The Heart Attack Café” which was featuring fried butter and chocolate covered bacon, among other culinary delights. I was especially intrigued by the fried butter. I was interested in what technique they used to fry it because if you just threw a stick of butter in hot oil it would melt and become one with the oil. I knew there had to be some coating on the outside.(I was lucky enough to read a newspaper article later that explained that the butter was combined with cream cheese, dipped in a kind of cruller batter and then deep fried — helpful info for those of you who want to try this at home.)

It was a tad distracting to have this booth right across from me while I did my demos. The ride going right over my head was distracting too but I knew I would never try that. I am not good at speed and heights. Fried butter though, that was a dare. It seemed especially weird to be across from “The Heart Attack Café” because what we were making in my booth was healthy food. We started with two versions of tacos, one made with lean beef and one made with ground turkey in a homemade peanut sauce and then for the second demo, artichoke and spinach dip quesadillas (and we made the dip ourselves) and then a Mexican salmon salad wrap with avocados.

When my demo was over, my very trim friend volunteered to take one for the team and taste the fried butter but at that point the line went around the block. We decided to pass and head home. I was sort of glad I didn’t get to taste it. I would much rather eat healthy tortillas.

Check out my kitchen on thekitchn.com

Sara Moulton — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:51:06 +0000

My home kitchen is featured on the kitchen tour page of thekitchn.com blog. About 2 1/2 years ago, I completely renovated the outdated kitchen that was in my apartment 14 years ago when we moved in. Without changing the kitchen’s footprint, we replaced everything for a clean, today, look. Here’s the link; please take a look!

Two and a half years ago, despite her stellar cooking résumé, Sara’s New York City kitchen was “rather down in the heel,” so she redesigned it with the help of kitchen designer Walter Pluff and Best Buy. The entire process was documented with a time-lapse camera perched on one of her loft’s columns and the project was made into eight webisodes for Best Buy. The footprint remained the same but everything else was ripped out. In three weeks the kitchen had new cabinets, lighting, tile, floor, countertops, and appliances.

“My first stove came complete with a dead cockroach, hanging out in the glass in the back where the dials were. Then I got my second electric stove; still, one of those old fashioned coil-types.” Her current range is a glass-top electric by KitchenAid. Sara doesn’t seem to mind cooking on electric. In her building, gas isn’t an option.

What inspires your cooking style?
Family has been a big influence as well. My grandmother was a good Ye Olde New England cook. She was my first teacher. We’d go to her house in the country and she would make bread and apple pie and cookies with us. My mom was a writer for Mademoiselle who traveled a lot and when she traveled she liked to eat in restaurants. When she came home she liked to re-create the meals. Together we starting cooking from Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook. That book really expanded my horizons. Then in college, my mom pushed me. I was living in Ann Arbor, Michigan after college cooking at a bar three days a week. Mom wrote to Julia Child and Craig Claiborne; Julia didn’t respond. Craig said if she wants to become a chef, she should go to culinary school. So I did. It’s funny that later on I ended up working a lot with Julia.

I’ve always had at least three jobs but we’ve always had family dinners. We still have family dinner now and my kids are nineteen and twenty-three. It’s not the fancy stuff I would eat in restaurants. Which is not to say for a special occasion I don’t splurge. But in general, it’s French-based without all the butter. I went to Culinary Institute of America, after all.

These days, in the cooking world, you have to be well-informed about all different kinds of cuisine. Particularly when I doing the Food Network shows, I became more familiar with Asian and Italian ingredients from the guests I’d have on the shows.

At the end of day, it has to taste good and I like it to be sort of healthy. Even though I’m French-trained, I tend to use olive oil not butter; I rarely use cream; I try to bulk up on vegetables as much as I can for the family. You know, I find that butter and cream often have a dull flavor. When I don’t want that stronger olive oil flavor, I generally go with grapeseed oil.

What inspires your kitchen?
It’s very efficient. It’s designed with the whole triangle idea in mind: the stove, sink and refrigerator in a shape that’s easy to move around in.

What are your favorite parts of the kitchen?
I love the farmhouse sink because it really does make me feel like I’m in a farmhouse. I love the granite counter-tops because they’re dreamy and they remind me of the ocean. My pull-out cutting board with garbage collection is genius. I love the big shelf above the kitchen, the upper deck. For Thanksgiving I put all my platters of food up there.

What’s the best cooking advice or tip you ever received?
It’s all in the details, but that’s not something anyone told me; it’s just something I figured out over time. For example, searing meat properly, simmering something until it’s reduced, or seasoning something when you should season it. It’s amazing what a difference those little details make.

What is the biggest challenge in your kitchen.
Just having the two large burners on my stove can be a challenge. I’m generally cooking for four so I wish I had six burners.

What is your biggest indulgence?
Always have Parmigiano Reggiano. I don’t know if that’s an indulgence but there are certain ingredients you have to have the best. I always buy organic eggs.

Do you have a dream tool or splurge?
I want to get the Penguin soda machine.

What are you cooking this week?
Chicken Saltimbacco with Artichoke Sauce from my new book, and smashed potatoes because Sammy’s home from college. When he was away we all dropped the starch, but he’s back, so it’s time for starch again!

What cookbook has inspired you the most?
Anna Thomas’s Vegetarian Epicure and Frances Moore Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet are serious inspirations. I’m not a vegetarian, but for most people that way of eating really is healthier. We don’t need to eat so much protein. I have a lot of favorite cookbook authors: Madhur Jaffrey, Nina Simonds, Julia Child, Jacques Pépin, Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, and Jean Anderson. I like cookbooks. I actually read them.

What’s the most memorable meal you’ve ever cooked in this kitchen?
For Sammy’s fourteenth birthday my son said he wanted to have a dinner party for his birthday. A dinner party for eight boys! For the first course he asked for lobster bisque. I hadn’t made it since culinary school, so I went to Julia’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and twelve pages later, I decided to just make up my own. The main course was braised short ribs, which I also make for Thanksgiving instead of turkey. I was worried about kids not wanting the ribs, so I also made Jean Anderson’s oven fried chicken which is dipped in melted garlic butter.Sammy loves spaetzle, so I did that, too. So I said, “Vegetables?” and he asked for frozen corn. He doesn’t love dessert so we set up a simple sundae buffet with store-bought ice cream. He insisted on setting the table with flowers and candles. Some of his friends just didn’t get it, but the whole thing was so sweet. The next year he asked for gumbo and that was just too much work so we hired out the gumbo to a friend’s husband who had cooked in New Orleans. Those were great dinner parties, even if some of it was lost on the young guests.

What are your essential cooking tools?
• 10” chef’s knife
• cutting board
• 10- to 12-inch skillet
• metal tongs
• curved fish spatulas
• rubber spatula
• Cuisinart food processor, especially for grating vegetables. (If you grate beets they cook in 3 minutes!)
• Bench scraper – both for getting things from cutting board to pan and cutting board to garbage

Resources

• Cabinets: Associated Fabrication (Brooklyn)
• Range: KitchenAid – Architect Series II 30″ Self-Cleaning Slide-In Electric Range (Stainless Steel)
• Dishwasher: KitchenAid Architect Series II Superba Series Dishwasher (Panel Ready)
• Refrigerator: KitchenAid – 21.8 Cu. Ft. Counter-Depth French Door Refrigerator (Stainless-Steel)
• Sink: Astracast Fireclay Farmhouse Sink
• Faucet: Barber Wilsons
• Floor Mat: Wellness Mat
• Cookware: Chantal Copper Fusion

See Full Slideshow

Recipe from Sara Moulton’s Everyday Weeknight Dinners

Chicken Saltimbocca with Artichoke Sauce
Makes 4 servings
Hands-on time: 35 minutes
Total preparation time: 45 minutes

Saltimbocca, which literally means “jump into the mouth” in Italian, is a no-brag-just-facts description of the wonderfulness of the classic recipe made with veal scaloppine, prosciutto, and sage. My version substitutes chicken for veal and adds an artichoke sauce. This recipe would work not only as a special treat for the family on a weeknight, but as a winning dinner entrée for guests on a weekend.

The only time-consuming part of this recipe is the pounding of the chicken breasts. But if you sprinkle the breasts with a little water before bashing away at them with a rolling pin, they won’t stick to the plastic bag and shred. In any case, I tend to find the bashing part of the preparation strangely soothing, especially after a bad day at the office or a squabble with the kidlets.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 1/4 pounds; see Note)
12 large fresh sage or basil leaves
2 to 3 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto di Parma
1/3 cup Wondra or unbleached all purpose flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup dry Marsala or sherry
One 14-ounce can artichoke hearts
1 cup Homemade Chicken Stock
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1. Sprinkle a small amount of water into a large resealable plastic bag. Place a chicken breast half in the bag and close, leaving 1/2 inch open. Pound the bag with a rolling pin or meat pounder until the breast is about 1/4 inch thick; remove and set aside. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts.

2. Put 3 sage leaves on the less smooth side of each pounded chicken breast. Cover them with the prosciutto and press until they adhere. Cover the breasts and chill them for 10 minutes. Cut each breast crosswise in half.

3. Spread out the flour in a pie plate lined with wax paper or parchment. Season half the chicken pieces with salt and pepper to taste. Working with one piece at a time, coat the chicken with the flour, lifting the wax paper on both sides to move the piece around; shake off the excess flour.

4. Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over high heat until hot; reduce the heat to medium. Sauté the chicken for 2 minutes per side, or until the pieces are golden and just cooked through; remove them to a plate and cover them loosely with aluminum foil. Repeat with the remaining oil and chicken.

5. Add the Marsala to the skillet; bring it to a boil, scraping up the brown bits at the bottom of the pan, and simmer for about 1 minute, or until the pan is almost dry.

6. Drain and coarsely chop the artichoke hearts (about 1 1/3 cups). Add them to the skillet along with the chicken stock and simmer until reduced by half. Return the chicken to the skillet and simmer just until reheated. Add the butter to the pan and swirl until it has melted. Divide the chicken among 4 dinner plates; spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve.

note: Or use 1 1/4 pounds thin chicken cutlets (about 7), which will not need to be pounded or cut in half. Just make sure to distribute the sage leaves and prosciutto evenly among all the cutlets.

Enter Slideshow

• Check out Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners at Amazon and Powell’s

• See Sara’s old kitchen here on the first Best Buy webisode in which she walks through the space with her kitchen designer.

• Kitchen Tour Archive: Check out past kitchen tours here.

Want to show us your own kitchen?
We’re always looking for real kitchens from real cooks.
Submit your kitchen here.

(All images: Sabra Krock, except Chicken Saltimbocca: Jamie Tiampo)