I don’t go out for a dinner a lot but when I do my favourite way of eating is tapas style – small tasty morsels laid out for me to nibble on while I enjoy a few glasses of wine. I find that eating this way is a lot more social. Of course tapas is a Spanish tradition but you can eat this way with any type of food, from Chinese through to Mexican. In fact I went one in New York this week called Graffiti that serves an inspiring selection of small plated international food in this manner – it was sensational.
I chose quite a meaty snack as my first tapas style recipe. Ordinarily I am more of a fig/goats cheese/prosciutto person or a stuffed mushroom kind of gal but these looked really good and I had a nice Sangiovese Cabernet that needed drinking.
They were also reminiscent of a fun period in my life when cheap and cheerful was a necessity rather than an option. My boyfriend and I would go to some wonderful places to eat (and drink) – Italian tapas style being one of them. We always went with the intentions of an early night but after a couple of glasses of wine he would turn to me with quite an ernest look and say ‘wot about another then? darlin’ (he was English you see) – I could never say no. Anyway, we always ordered quite meaty dishes (he loved his proscuitto) and usually ended up drinking a lot more than we should have. They were great times.
6 slices of prosciutto
6 thinly cut veal escalopes
12 sage leaves
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
100 mls of dry white wine
Optional mixed salad leaves to serve
Place veal on top of the prosciutto and position 2 sage leaves evenly on each. Roll up and cut into pieces, fastening with a toothpick.
Heat oil and butter is a fry pan over a medium heat and cook for around 3 – 4 minutes on each side. Add wine and cook for a further 2 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter, spoon over a little of the wine/butter/oil sauce and serve warm (with the salad leaves if you like).
Notes: Once I added the wine I didn’t quite like the colour these little parcels took on (they seemed to lose their depth of colour) so I refried them without any oil – on a high heat just for 1 minute before I served them.
Source: Wine, October/November 2010
© 2010, Michelle. All rights reserved.
