A Gordon Ramsay delicious dish

So why would I try another recipe from the net so soon after the zucchini cake? (more on that later, by the way). Just wanted to live dangerously I guess, oh, and I had these veal escalopes and was not fussed on doing the same ol' same ol', and this recipe certainly isn't that, lovely fresh ingredients, fab pic of the finished dish, and Gordon Ramsay isn't exactly known to be a slacker in the kitchen, just had to be a winning combo, and it was.

The original recipe and photo can be found on Lifestyle Food.com.au as 'Veal escalope with Caponata and parsley and lemon linguine'.
For the life of me I cannot get the link to copy/paste.

It's a bit of a 3 step procedure but is simply done, just needs a little time, and as this was only to serve 2 the ingredient amounts have been altered and as usual, I cut the amount of fats used.

I started off with the Lemon Linguine.
Serves 2

130 grams fresh linguine
150 mils chicken stock
2 teaspoons butter, chilled - recipe called for 125grams for 4 servings
grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
chopped Parsley............oops, just realised I forgot this.

Cook the linguine in a large saucepan of salted boiling water until just al-dente.

Drain and refresh under cold running water. Drain well and set aside in a covered dish.

Pour the stock into a small saucepan and heat until almost boiling.
Add the lemon zest, then whisk in the butter one teaspoon at a time, whisking vigorously, until the butter is well incorporated. Add lemon juice and season to taste. Put pan to one side until ready to serve.

Next, I crumbed the Veal, this could be done quite a bit before time if you were entertaining.
50grams natural breadcrumbs
25grams finely grated Parmesan
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 veal escalopes
25 grams seasoned plain flour
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
basil leaves, shredded or torn
20grams toasted pine nutsGrate the Parmesan cheese, I use a Microplane zester which creates a light and airy pile of cheese that goes a long way.

Beat egg in shallow bowl, place seasoned flour on flat plate and on another plate mix half the breadcrumbs with half the cheese.

The recipe called for 'real' breadcrumbs, that threw me, in this day and age of the bizarre I couldn't stop wondering what unreal breadcrumbs might be..........rainbow coloured? but really, probably some fluffy thing made from a food process waste product, the recipe didn't say fresh so I used toasted crumbs that you buy at a Grocers.

Even weighing out half the breadcrumbs and Parmesan, it still looked to be quite a bit so I mixed them as needed on a plate, and that was a good thing as there was still quite a bit of each left over, perhaps 'British rose Veal escalopes are a lot larger'.
As the escalops were finished I laid them on the lid of a storage container, then covered them using the base as a lid, just love these plastics that come from the 'Cheapie Charlie' stores, some have been used in our house for almost 20years, they stack well in the fridge or in the pantry, the contents are readily seen and they are easily marked with a sharpie pen.

All set to pop into the fridge to rest while the Caponata is assembled. Ingredients needed for the Caponata,now the Darling isn't a fan of Aubergine, nor capers and although he loves olives, generally not in a cooked dish. Am I headed for trouble here?.........well there has to be an adventure in life every now and again and this is it for today.

2 baby aubergine, cut into chunks
1/2 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced
1/2 red capsicum, chopped
sea salt and ground pepper
2 large tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon caster sugar
3/4 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
50 grams green olives, pitted and sliced
20 grams capers, rinsed and drained

The recipe also called for quite a bit of olive oil which I found I didn't need/use. This did affect the look of the recipe, there was none of the yellow sauce that you see in the original recipe photo, but did it seriously affect the flavour?, I don't think so and I like to use less oil.


Using a fry pan that is large enough to take the escalopes in a single layer, toast the pine nuts in the dry pan over medium heat, there are enough oils in the pine nuts so that they do not need extra, watch carefully and as soon as browned, remove to a bowl and place to one side until ready to plate the meal.



Place the 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil in the frying pan and heat over a medium heat until a cube of bread dropped into the oil immediately begins to sizzle and brown.


Lay escalopes into pan and brown well. Turn and brown the other side.
The secret to a nice crisp coating that doesn't pull away is not to disturb the escalopes until the Parmesan has had a chance to melt and become crisp, if you try to turn the escalopes too early the crumb mix will pull away and you will just have a mess.Remove escalopes to paper towel and drain, keep warm in very low oven.

To make the Caponata, increase heat under the pan that you have just used for the escalopes, in the oily pan, saute the aubergine, onion, celery and red capsicum with a little salt and pepper for approx. 3 - 5 minutes.

Add the tomato chunks, with the garlic, sugar, vinegar, olives and capers. Cook quickly for another 5 - 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until the aubergine is tender. Adjust seasoning to taste and keep to one side.

While the aubergine mixture is cooking, place the lemon, stock and butter mixture into a large pan and bring to the boil, lower heat and do not allow to boil away.

When Caponata is almost done, add the linguine to the buttery lemon stock and heat through, approx 1 minute, drain, reserving stock, and using either a fork or tongs, wind pasta onto a warm serving plate to form a nest.

If Caponata has become a little dry, add a tablespoon of the buttery stock that heated the pasta and stir through, spoon Caponata over the pasta, top with a veal escalope. Sprinkle with the toasted pine nuts and either tear or finely shred the basil leaves over the top and serve immediately.
These Basil leaves were very large, from an old plant, so shredding them just resulted in limp un-interesting shreds, and tearing them wasn't much better. This is just not a good time for Basil at the moment.

Oh and that Zucchini and Pineapple Cake, turned out a real treat, everyone loved it. Just goes to show.............don't be too quick to judge the green..