Recipe(tried): Breast of Veal with Onions and Herbs - Snow Crab with Pasta, Parsley and Chili

I am having my 3 sisters over for dinner tomorrow night, both for them to see my new place (as messy as it still is!) and also to cheer up the sister who has been having serious back pain (crushed disk) and a fight with the insurance people to get it fixed (she's terribly depressed about it all). I decided to make a meal that none of them would probably make for themselves to make it more fun.

We are having a little spurt of cool fall weather, so I decided to make a cozy meal. I have been exploring what might be termed "old-fashioned" cooking styles for a couple of years, especially those using cuts of meat that aren't necessarily fashionable these days - the type of cooking that uses inexpensive cuts of meats that take a long time to cook, like shoulder, rump, shank, etc. The flavor of these dishes is incredible, and I often wish I felt more comfortable posting some of the recipes - I know that most of the visitors here prefer quick-cook recipes and more recognizable cuts of meat readably available in the grocery store. The thing about these types of recipes is that, once the initial prep is done, the long cooking time is mostly unattended and easy! Lots of crockpot recipes are this sort of recipe, too.

I am also a cooking show fan - PBS and some of the Food Network shows are some of my favorite watching, especially those where they teach you more than just recipes - I love the history and geography and details about the ingredients. One of my favorites is Mario Batali's Molto Mario on the Food Network. Since I have an affinity for the "peasant" cooking in the Mediterranean region, I gravitate to his cooking style, and even though he speaks faster than a Californian teenager ;o) I learn more about the history of the food he is cooking and appreciate it very much. The recipe I'm cooking for my sisters is one I saw on Mario's show a couple of weeks ago and fixed for myself with great success. It is a braised breast of veal cooked simply and for a long time. I've looked at breast of veal in the store for years and really didn't know what to do with it. This looked so good that I had to try it. And, since veal breast was on sale at the butcher for only $1.19/lb. this week, I decided to make it again for my sisters. Since this recipe is copyrighted, I'll put the link here, and tell you a little more about it in the next paragraph: http://www.foodtv.com/foodtv/recipe/0,6255,14951,00.html

My notes on this recipe: the recipe says that the meat should be "bone in" but the tv show demonstrating it showed him taking the meat off the bone first (and saving them for another purpose). I cooked it per the recipe, leaving the bones on, since I firmly believe that bone-in meat has much more flavor. What I found is that, after a few hours of cooking, the meat separated from the bone immediately upon turning anyway, which left one side of the slab of meat "white" - I'm sure it would taste fine, but I love that well browned meat, and it took an additional hour in the cooking timeline to get that side browned. So, this time I'll cut the meat off the bone to begin with, as was shown in the tv demonstration, and save the bones for veal stock (breast bones have so much gelatin, they are perfect to add to stock). He also used bunches of fresh herbs still on the stalk on the tv show instead of chopped herbs - much easier! Cippolline onions aren't often available in many markets around here, and I wasn't able to get them for the first time I did this recipe, so I just took regular onions and halved them, keeping the root end intact so they wouldn't separate in the cooking process. On the tv show he didn't deglaze the pan with the wine mentioned in the printed recipe, but with water, discussing the fact that "in the old days" not everyone would have used wine, and that currently it is "vogue" to deglaze with a little water so as not to alter the "natural" taste of the foods - whatever! LOL! I used only water and it tasted fabulous - no wine needed (though I always cook with wine and might use it this time to taste the difference). Lastly, I prefer to add the chopped chilies to the onions for a couple of minutes to get a little color on them.

This all might sound like too much work, but it really isn't - and it is SO worth it! I'm going to serve a crab dressed pasta as a first course, and a simply dressed green salad with diced fresh fennel and black olives after the main course. One sister is bringing the dessert and another is bringing the wine (Pinot Noir) -- I'll pick up a white wine for the first course (probably a Pinot Grigio).

Snow Crab with Pasta, Parsley and Chili
From Rick Stein's Taste of the Sea
Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter

6 ounces cappellini or spaghetti
1 lg. tomato, peeleed, seeded and chopped
5 ounces cooked snow crabmeat (from 2 clusters)
2 tsp chopped fresh parsley
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 TBL extra-virgin olive oil
Pinch of dried, crushed chili flakes
1 small clove garlic, very finely chopped

Boil the pasta in salted water until al dente.

Warm the tomato, crabmeat, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, chili and garlic over low heat. Let the mixture warm through but don't let it boil. Place pasta on two warmed plates and spoon sauce over.

Editor's Note:
Breast of Veal with Onions and Herbs