Chicken Saltimboca with Marsala Wine Sauce →

In Italy, Saltimbocca (meaning “to jump in the mouth”) consists of thin slices of veal stuffed with prosciutto, sage, and a melted cheese, sometimes accompanied by a wine sauce. This recipe is an interpretation of the traditional dish served in Italy and found here in the United States on menus of many good Italian restaurants. For my purposes, I chose to use butterflied chicken breasts in place of veal; used fontina for the cheese; added spinach, and made a sauce from Marsala wine. The ingredients list is a bit long, but the dish is flavorful and elegant enough to serve to dinner guests and it won’t break the family budget. In place of traditional heavy cream, I opted to make a roux to create a lighter Marsala sauce saving calories and cholesterol for another time. Served over egg noodles or pappardelle, or polenta accompanied by sauteed broccoli or broccolini, or a mixed green salad, it will jump in your mouth. I hope you like it. Enjoy!

Chicken Saltimbocca with Marsala Wine Sauce
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

• 1 ¾ cups chicken broth

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

• 2 handfuls of baby spinach rinsed

• 1 clove of garlic minced

• a pinch of hot pepper flakes

• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons lemon zest

• 4 large sage leaves

• 2 slices of prosciutto cut crosswise in half

• 4 thin slices of fontina cheese about 2 x 2 ½ inches

• ½ cup all-purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• ½ cup of dry Marsala wine

Optional: toasted sage leaves or chopped parsley for garnish. 

PREPARATION
Pre-heat your oven to 200 F.

1. In a saucepan over high heat, bring the chicken broth to a boil and reduce it by half. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. In a heavy bottom skillet over medium heat, heat a tablespoon of olive oil, and add the minced garlic and pepper flakes stirring for about a minute. Don’t burn the garlic. Add the baby spinach, lemon juice, and lemon zest and sauté until the spinach has wilted. Remove the spinach mixture from the skillet and set aside. Wipe out the skillet with a paper towel.

3. Cut across each chicken breast so you have two pieces roughly the same size. Carefully butterfly (slice) each half lengthwise leaving about an inch uncut at one side of each breast piece.

4. Open the butterflied breast pieces, placing each butterflied half of a breast between two layers of plastic wrap. Gently pound each with a meat mallet or rolling pin to flatten each piece to a uniform thickness of about ½ inch thick.

5. Lay the pounded pieces open and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place a tablespoon of cooked spinach, a sage leaf, a piece of prosciutto, and a slice of fontina on each piece and fold over the other half of the butterflied chicken to create a “sandwich”.

6. Add flour to a flat plate and carefully dredge both sides of the chicken “sandwiches” in the flour, shaking off any excess flour. Heat 1 tablespoon each of oil and butter in the skillet over moderately high heat until the foam subsides, then sauté the chicken “sandwiches” until golden brown (about 2-3 minutes on each side), carefully turning over once. At that point, the cheese should be starting to melt and ooze out of the stuffed “sandwiches”. Transfer the cooked chicken to a large heatproof platter or sheet pan and tent placing the platter in a warm oven.

7. Wipe out the skillet with a paper towel. Over medium heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil and sauté the shallot and fresh sage for a minute or two (don’t burn the shallot). Add a tablespoon of butter to melt. Sprinkle two to three teaspoons of flour over the shallots and stir until the flour is well incorporated and just beginning to brown on the bottom of the skillet. (You’re making a roux: more flour = thicker sauce.)

8. Add the chicken broth and wine to the skillet, stirring constantly until you have a smooth sauce. Taste the sauce and adjust the salt and pepper to your preference. *Optional: a few drops of lemon juice at the end will brighten the sauce.
9. Carefully return the pieces of chicken to the skillet with the sauce and heat over medium-low heat until you can see the cheese has melted. Serve the chicken with sauce. Garnish with toasted sage. (optional)
10. Serve with sauce over egg noodles, pappardelle, or polenta.

Wine pairing: an un-oaked Chardonnay or Burgundy, Rueda, Vernaccia, Pinot grigio, Viognier, or
dry-Riesling; for red wines, a Barbera, chilled Rosé, Pinot Noir, or Beaujolais would also work.  

Ischia-style Rabbit →

Ischia is an island off of Naples, Italy. With an abundance of wild rabbits, the island is famous for its rabbit dishes. This recipe is adapted from chef Andrea Migliaccio’s recipe for Ischia-style Rabbit. It would also work well substituting chicken legs and thighs for the rabbit. This is an easy delicious recipe that epitomizes the magic created when you combine simple ingredients like fresh herbs, shallots, garlic, broth, and white wine. Buon Appetito!

Ischia-style Rabbit
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 2 rabbits cut into pieces (or one chicken leg and thigh per person)

• 1 bulb of garlic, cut in half

• 1 ¾ cup of shallots, sliced

• 1 chili, cut in half length-ways (I used ¼ tsp. red pepper flakes)

• 2 cups + 3 tablespoons of white wine

• 2 cups + 3 tablespoons of chicken or vegetable stock

• 1 cup of tomatoes (about 3-4 plumb tomatoes quartered)

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 bunch of parsley, roughly chopped

• 1 bunch of basil, roughly chopped (reserve a few leaves whole for garnish)

• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 375 F.
1. Using a cleaver or heavy butcher knife, cut the rabbits into pieces: the shoulders, ribs, loins, and hind legs. Discard the liver, heart, and other organs or save them for another use. Season all of the pieces with salt and pepper and dust lightly with a little flour.

2. Working in batches, sauté the rabbit pieces with a little olive oil in a skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat, adding more oil as necessary until all the pieces are golden brown. When all the pieces are browned, tent and set the rabbit to one side and discard the oil from the pan.

3. Add another tablespoon of olive oil and add the garlic, shallots, and chili (red pepper flakes). Cook, stirring occasionally for a few minutes over medium-high heat until the shallots are golden. Don’t burn the pan.

4. Deglaze the pan with the white wine scraping up the browned pieces in the pan. After about 2-3 minutes, add the tomatoes and the chicken/vegetable stock. Bring to a boil over medium to high heat.

5. Add the chopped parsley and basil and continue to cook over med-high heat for 10 minutes.

6. Add the reserved pieces of rabbit in a single layer to a roasting pan, pour the sauce over the rabbit, and roast in the oven for about 45 minutes. The sauce will thicken and the rabbit will turn golden brown.

7. Adjust the salt and pepper to your taste and serve garnished with fresh basil leaves.

Note: this dish pairs well with buttered potatoes and parsley and green beans sauteed with garlic, red pepper flakes, and lemon zest.

Wine pairing: full-bodied white wines like Verdicchio or Tiberio Pecorino; White Burgundy, or White Rhone wines; a dry Riesling would also work; lighter red wines like Beaujolais or Dolcetto di Alba are also a good match.

Adapted from: https://www.greatitalianchefs.com/recipes/rabbit-ischia-style-recipe
Andrea Migliaccio