Cooking runs in my blood. When my parents got divorced, we started a tradition with my mum & sister to have dinner every Monday. We are all grown-ups now, but this tradition has stayed the same for almost 10years now. This Monday, we made Saltimbocca, an Italian dish. However, we don't take it too seriously, so this was pretty much made with what we had at home.
Basic ingredients you need is either veal or pork, both will work great, fresh sage (don't subsitute for dried) and prosciutto, which is the Italian air dried ham. You can use serrano ham (Spanish)or similar products, whatever is available. Just don't tell an Italian that...
Slice the pork/veal in thick slices (or buy ready) and then batter them thin. With pork there can sometimes be a thick fat layer, you can cut that away.
The next step is to place the prosciutto on top of your meat, and on top of that a sage leaf. I used a regular toothpick to keep the whole thing together.
Next heat up a pan, add about 1tbs of olive oil, and quickly sear the meat on both sides.
Then put all the meat in a ceramic pan that can stand the heat of an oven. Put the pan in the oven for about 10min on 220C.
While the meat is in the oven, you can prepare the sauce. Use the same pan where you seared the meat, add 1dl of water, 1tbs of soy sauce, 1/2 cube (or 1tsp) of stock powder, 4tbs of sherry and 1tsp of honey. Taste and att soy for saltiness or honey for sweetness. Let the sauce simmer together, and finally add some sauce thickener to thicken it up.
prepare a nice salad. This is a very simple one with arugula, lettuce, avocado slices, roasted pine nuts and crumbled goat cheese.
Really the only trick here is to use ripe avocado's and to cut them just before you serve. Squeeze some lemon over the avocado and it will keep them from turning brown.
Take the meat out of the oven, pour the sauce over them and serve with the salad. My mother really felt like having some potato wedges with this, but it's striclty optional. If you have a salad with avocado and goat cheese you will feel perfectly full without the carbs in potatoes. Enjoy!
