Saltimbocca alla Romana and crispy potatoes with rosemary
Serve: 5 people
Ingredients:
Saltimbocca:
10 thin veal slices
10 slices of prosciutto crudo
10 sage leaves
50g unsalted butter
50g white wine
plain flour for dredging (around 40g)
sea salt
black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
Serve: 2
Crispy potatoes:
450g potatoes
6g baking soda
30g semolina
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
sea salt
black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
Method:
Prep:
Bring water to boil in a medium pot for cooking potatoes. Peel and cut them in half.
Put veal slices on a chopping board and lightly salt and ground black pepper on one of the sides. If the cuts are too thick - grab a meat mallet (if you don’t have one - use a rolling pin) and thin them out by pounding the meat. I recommend using a clingfilm when beating so that you don’t splash and prevent meat from tearing.
Coat the salted side with plain flour to achieve better browning (more flavour) when cooking and to make the resulting sauce slightly thicker.
Place the veal flour side down, put one slice of prosciutto on top of it, and lay a leaf of sage over the ham. Grab a wooden toothpick and skewer the ingredients to hold them together, as below:
Cook potatoes:
Once the water for potatoes starts to boil, add plenty of salt and around a teaspoon of baking soda (credits for the baking soda technique to J. Kenji López-Alt). Carefully chuck potatoes in and cook until soft (the time depends on the size of your cuts). Once the potatoes are ready you’ll notice that the edges degrade and change to starchy and mushy - which is a good thing! As the potatoes are cooked in an alkaline environment, their surface is well prepared for the next stage of crisping them up.
Set the oven to 230°C.
As soon as the potatoes soften, let them cool slightly, then season with salt and black pepper and toss in some olive oil. Add rosemary sprigs and semolina (durum wheat flour) and mix. I find that semolina makes the already roughed-up potatoes even crispier. Lay a baking sheet on a tray and put the potatoes flat side down, then bake them for about 45 minutes. After around 20 minutes check the flat bottom browning - if it still sticks to the baking sheet it means you might need to give it a bit more time. Once the bottom side is well coloured, turn the potatoes and cook until all the pieces get brown and crispy (see photo below). Serve immediately and sprinkle with Maldon salt and ground black pepper for presentation.
Cook saltimbocca and the sauce:
Heat a large frying pan with olive oil over medium heat. Cook the slices in two rounds. Add the first five slices (sage side up) and cook them for 90 seconds, then carefully flip them over and give a few more seconds. Repeat with the second batch. Set the meat aside.
Deglaze the fond (brown bits) with white wine by scraping the pan with a wooden spoon. After the wine is reduced, melt in a couple of knobs of butter, stir, and season the sauce with salt and black pepper if needed. Serve the saltimbocca with the sauce and potatoes on the side.