Veal is a tender meat with little fat, often served with sauce to add moisture. Veal Marsala is a common dish made with thin veal cutlets and a wine and mushroom-based sauce. Marsala sauce is made with sliced mushrooms, garlic, onions, and wine, and can be thinned with stock or cream. Veal Marsala is often served with pasta or mashed potatoes.
Veal is a cut of meat that comes from a young cow. It has a naturally tender texture, with a delicate flavor and little fat. Its lack of fat can increase the chances that meat will dry out even when lightly cooked; therefore, veal is often served a sauce to add moisture to the meat. One of the most common veal dishes is veal marsala, an Italian dish consisting of thin pieces of veal topped with a marsala wine and mushroom-based sauce.
Veal cutlets, or thin pieces of boneless veal from the leg of the cow, traditionally form the basis of veal marsala. Because veal cutlets are so thin, they require only a short stir-fry on each side, often one to two minutes, just to add a golden brown coating and to gently heat the meat without overcooking it. Recipes don’t usually call for adding much more seasoning than basic salt and pepper in order to avoid overpowering the flavors of the Marsala sauce.
Marsala is a type of wine produced mainly in the Italian region of Sicily. It is a fortified wine, where another type of alcohol is added to the wine. When making the sauce for veal marsala, sliced mushrooms are sautéed in butter or oil, along with finely chopped garlic and onions, and wine is added to the cooked vegetables. As the mixture cooks, the other ingredients absorb the wine and reduce the total amount of liquid for the sauce, so another liquid, such as veal or chicken stock or heavy cream, can be added to the marsala sauce to thin it out.
Marsala sauce is added over the sauteed veal cutlets to serve. To add flavor to the sauce and soak it into the meat, the veal cutlets can be placed in the pan with the sauce and simmered for a minute or two. If you must do this step, recipes typically recommend lightly cooking the veal cutlets during the original brining stage as the heat from the sauce will carry over and continue to lightly cook the meat.
Veal marsala is often served with a starch to help absorb any other marsala sauce. A common accompaniment is buttered fettuccini or another type of thin pasta, and the veal can be served on top of the pasta or on the side. While not as traditional in Italian cooking, many restaurants also offer the dish alongside mashed potatoes. Since veal will eventually absorb most of the liquid from the sauce, it is usually served immediately after cooking.
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