Marsala Pan Sauce

[Nicholas Mosher]

Ok, I'm playing around with Marsala wines and pan sauces based on said wine (and the fond from sauteed meat). I picked up four bottles, two "sweet" and two "dry".

Today I was belting out some Veal Scaloppine Marsala w/Shrooms.

Right now the ratios I'm using are...

1-T Butter
2 Veal Scaloppine

1-T Minced Shallot
1/2-C Sliced Shrooms (Mixed)
1/2-C Marsala Wine
1-T Veal Demi-Glace
1-T Butter
1-t Minced Parsley
Kosher Salt & Black Pepper

I'd appreciate some of the recipes others use for this classic dish!

Tomorrow I'm going to try some with the more common Chicken Scaloppine. I don't stock chicken demi-glace in my freezer, so I will have to make a quick batch in the morning with some brown chicken stock, a roux, and a sachet.

 

[ironchef]

Do you dust your veal in flour before you saute them? That's the only thing missing from your recipe that I would add, if you're not already doing it. For mushrooms, I like to use a mixture of cremini, oyster, and a little rehydrated dried porcini along with the rehydrating liquid. Gives a little more complexity to the sauce.

 

[kitchenelf]

You should not poison anyone with this sauce. You should only serve it to me - I will put myself in harm's way for the benefit of your experimtations.

I do a much more basic sauce in this recipe.

Nonetheless this dish is good. I never keep veal demi-glace around so it's plain ol' chicken broth for me :-(

 

[Nicholas Mosher]

Ironchef - HA! Thats the exact mushroom blend I was using... Thats what my market had this morning along with the common white buttons. I bought the dried porcinis, but didn't get the chance to soak 'em, so I was using cremini & oyster. I'll definetly add in the filtered soaking liquid tomorrow too. How much of it do you usually add?

I'm usually not a fan of flouring my meat (except fish), but I gave it a shot in my first batch and last batch (allowing the flour to saturate itself and better-bond to the meat). The scaloppine are ultra-thin, so they were only in the pan for 45sec or so. I found that I preferred high heat and an uncoated strip of meat. Letting the flour hydrate itself was second best, but the quick flour and fry method produced a light crisp exterior that separated in the sauce when I returned the veal pieces to the sauces to quickly reheat.

I also found a huge difference between using a sweet Marsala and a dry Marsala (oddly both had 18% alcohol). The sweet Marsala became way to sweet when it was reduced, but the dry Marsala was perfect. Just enough sweetness once it reduced.

Oh, I did have to sneak an extra teaspoon of butter in when I added the shallots and mushrooms.

Does anyone use cream in their Marsala recipes? Thats one thing I didn't try today, and will have to give a go tomorrow with the Chicken Marsala.

 

[shpj4]

I enjoyed your receipe with the veal scaloppine and also your marsala pan sauce.

Sounds yummy. I think you had a good idea about picking up two bottles of wine - one sweet and one dry.

 

[ironchef]

Per serving, probably about 2 Tbsp. of the porcini liquid only as a little will go a long way as it's reducing with the marsala.

 

[Nicholas Mosher]

ironchef - Awesome! That will definetly be a go tomorrow.
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kitchenelf - Cool recipe! Given the other common Italian items, I never thought of giving it a quick shaving of parm-reg or pec-rom at the end. I'll have to give that a try tomorrow. Given the sweet, savory, and slightly acidic nature of the sauce, salty might make a great addition!
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What do you guys think about a side. I think pasta is the most common isn't it? I see alot of recipes and photos with long pasta like linguini/fettucini/capellini, but a really wide noodle (yet still thin) is what comes to my mind... perhaps a broad egg-noodle? Or possibly even some pasta rags.

 

[GB]

I enjoy serving this with couscous. I think the sauce soaking into the couscous is just heaven.

 

[ChefJune]

Soft Polenta or Mashed Potatoes -- neither is "traditional,' but both are quite tasty, and good for sopping up the sauce!

With the right seasonings, even plain old button mushrooms are great in Veal Marsala.

I personally would save the cheese for another dish.

 

[Nicholas Mosher]

Hmmm... couscous sounds interesting - I'm visualizing it's texture with the shrooms and juicy meat. Polenta sounds good too!

Today I was focusing just on this, so I paired it with a hunk of fresh warm baguette and a small plate of frisee aux lardons. Nothing like sopping up sauce with bread!

So tomorrow I'm going to try three things...

1. A few shavings of parm-reg and pec-rom at the end.
2. Using 2 tablespoons of the porcini soaking liquid with the Marsala.
3. Trying 2 tablespoons of cream rather than the butter at the end.

I'll also be moving along to chicken from veal.

 

[Andy M.]

Nick, I sometimes add heavy cream to finish the sauce. My daughters and SO like it so much I have to make it that way regularly Though not all the time.

I always use dry marsala.

 

[Nicholas Mosher]

Thought about it some more. Grilled polenta wedges would probably kick-butt with this dish!

 

[Andy M.]

Risotto Milanese.

 

[Nicholas Mosher]

Ahh yes. Is that the traditional pairing?

I was thinking about the couscous because of it's texture, but a soft creamy rice would probably be even better! I can taste the marsala sauce mixing with the risotto now...

I'm still thinking of a real thick wedge of polenta too, perhaps made with some parm-reg and a little liquid from the mushrooms for extra flavor, then grilled up.

 

[Nicholas Mosher]

I actually abandoned the CIA's recipe on this one. It relied heavily on demi-glace, and used 50% red wine/50% marsala which just seemed wrong. Perhaps this is to cut the end cost in a restaurant or something.

I ended up playing around with ratios until I came up with the one I posted. It tastes pretty good.

 

[ironchef]

For me, I like pasta with my Marsala although I'm not picky and will eat whatever's given. You could try a smaller type pasta which would pick up a lot of the sauce because of the shape. Something like gemelli or orecchiette comes to mind.

 

[kitchenelf]

For some reason egg noodles just don't get it for me - maybe because I feel more "homey" about those i.e., chicken soup, beef stroganoff. I always serve with pasta, usually linguini - but now that other things have been mentioned what about:

• light lemon risotto with chopped asparagus
• papparadella (twist with a straight two-pronged fork (like a carving set fork), twist the pasta around and around then let the noodles slide off the fork into a nice mound on the plate, drizzle with more sauce and shaved Parm-Regg
• Grilled polenta cakes
• for a vegetable I usually roast or grill some asparagus, chop, and toss in with the pasta - but I may try the lemon risotta and asparagus next time I make this
  Grilled or deep fried garlic/cheese grit cakes would be good too

And to cut the cost in a restaurant just be sure, if using pasta, to coat with olive oil/butter for moistening instead of a bunch of reduced marsala - use only a light drizzle and the rest on the meat.

 

[bandonjan]

I like Chicken/Veal Marsala with or without the cream. I use
a dry Marsala and ususally have a pasta side. Polenta and
risotto sound great as sides. Next time I'll try one of them.
Thanks for your "research"!

 

[kadesma]

One of our favorite things is a creamy mushroom Marsala sauce over a soft polenta..I've used a mix of mushroom, and even just plain old buttons and the sauce is lovely each time. Putting this same sauce over chicken just adds something special to our sunday dinners.
kadesma

 

[Nicholas Mosher]

ironchef - Orecchiette looks interesting, I've actully never had that shape of pasta before.
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Picked up and broke down a chicken for some more experimentation today.

Oh, I see some people here do finish their marsala recipes with cream instead of butter... thats first on the list today after I whip up some chicken demiglace (defrosting some brown chicken stock right now).

For sides, I defintely like the ideas of...

1. Egg Noodles/Pasta Rags/Orecchiette
2. Grilled Polenta Cakes
3. Risotto (especially a wild mushroom risotto using stock from whatever type of meat is being prepared. Yes, I do believe a brown veal stock wild mushroom risotto would work great with Veal Marsala...)

Asparagus tips definetly sound good for texture and color. The mushrooms remind me of the forest though, so I bet some fiddlehead ferns would go excellent with this as well.

EDIT: Perhaps melt a bit of truffle butter with reduced marsala with the fiddleheads - just enough to lightly coat them with a flavorful sheen.

Oh, and use a couple seared/roasted veal chops instead of the scaloppine.

Well, off to cook.