underground cookery

Tonight I'm testing my culinary bounds.

My favourite dish of all time, or at least the most nostalgiacally cherished in my twisted little memory, is veal parmigiana with ravioli. Between about 9 and 14 I reckon I ordered this dish perhaps 20 times at the Underground Restaurant in Innisfail. By the end, Silvio Mantovani, the chef, didn't even ask me, he just wrote it down. I've found plenty of other places that offer such a dish by name, but they aren't the same thing. I have no idea how they made it, but I'm giving it a shot tonight based on memory and a mishmash of recipes found online.

So, anyway, the basic recipe tonight is that I take a veal escalope (don't know in english). Ideally I beat it with a hammer to within an inch of its life, but I don't have a hammer. Then I coat one side with flour, then an egg/milk/pepper mixture, then breadcrumbs with a little bit of grated parmesan cheese mixed in. I fry this one side, then lay on a slice of prosciutto, followed by a dose of parmesan cheese, then I fold over the veal to seal the prosciutto and parmesan inside, pinching it closed with a toothpick. This then goes into the oven with some tomato sauce and a slice of mozzarella. The ravioli I've bought, since I have even less chance of duplicating their amazing home-made pasta, and none whatsoever of making that into credible ravioli.

I'm going with a gaillac for wine. The bottle doesn't say what grapes it contains, but it comes from the area between Toulouse and Albi, through which I travelled on a train with Chris and Mick a few months back. From what I remember of previous gaillac escapades, I think its likely to be a cab-merlot or something nice like that.