Among traditional Italian meat cutlet recipes, in addition to the Milanese and the one known as elephant’s ear or the Viennese, the Bolognese cutlet also deserves a place of honor.
It is a recipe that today you can often find revisited with heavy cream or cheese to speed up preparation and accentuate fat taste, considered wrongly one characteristic of Bolognese cuisine.
Bologna the Fat does not have an unnecessarily fat kitchen. The dishes are rich in the quantity, and cost, of ingredients. But typical dishes have a perfect and refined balance of flavors.
Artusi, the Italian gastronome who lived in the 1800s, wrote: “When you hear of Bolognese cuisine do reverence, that it deserves it.”
I understand that adding liquid cream or sliced cheese seems like an innocent sin. But, in my opinion, this is a serious matter. Waiting those few minutes that turn Parmigiano into a soft, inviting cream makes the difference between a refined dish of the Bolognese school and a coarse one.
History of the Bolognese cutlet
In the book Breviario della Buona cucina bolognese (1959), the journalist Gianni Paglia writes:
“With cutlets of various kinds, scaloppine, turkey fillets, we are faced with a series of refined dishes, from which Bolognese cuisine draws more than one of its titles of merit and certainly not the least.”
On the Petronian cutlet he adds:
“Prosciutto cutlets consist of pieces of thin veal accompanied by thin slices of prosciutto crudo, along with which they are passed in egg and breadcrumbs and fried. Each cutlet is covered with an equally thin slice of Parmesan cheese placed on top. And the cooking process is completed with a gravy of tomato, broth, or meat sauce.”
Even Artusi, Recipe 313, Cotolette al Prosciutto, writes that the veal cutlet is dipped in egg with prosciutto, rolled in breadcrumbs, and then fried. And, again, the Romagnolo gastronome also suggests finishing cooking them “with meat sauce and lemon sour, or with tomato sauce.”
Recipe No. 312 from Artusi’s collection, veal cutlet a la Bolognese with truffles, introduces another ingredient, the truffle, which, even today, just like a teardrop of tomato sauce, some people use on the Petroniana cutlet.
Because of Artusi, who includes both versions of cutlets that one could enjoy in Bologna as early as the mid-nineteenth century, we deduce that the recipe is ancient. Some trace it back to the 17th century, but I have found no sources to confirm such a long history.
One thing is for sure: if we had taken part in a 1600s banquet, we would have tasted a different Bolognese cutlet than the one described by Artusi in the late 1800s. Some sources tell us that at one time, the cutlet a la Bolognese was tall and had bone (like the Milanese today), and the meat could be veal but also pork (NEVER chicken).
Chiccona, the mistress
In the early 1900s, a hostess from Borgo Panigale, a small town near Bologna, made the dish famous again.
La Chiccona, as she was known, combined veal, Parmigiano, and truffles with skillful harmony. She must have been a master if she deserved a place among the pages of Bolognese history books.
Fry the Bolognese cutlet in butter, as indicated by Artusi. The meat is veal, but sometimes you find it made with pork. You have to add Prosciutto crudo after frying. You seldom find truffles and tomato sauce in the dish. But if it happens, even if obsolete, these ingredients are part of the historical recipe.
Side dishes to accompany the Bolognese cutlet
The fried cutlet calls for a fresh seasonal salad.
Alternatively, I recommend coleslaw, with which I accompany another traditional Bolognese cutlet, that of mortadella. Of course, baked, fried, or mashed potatoes also work well.
And what about cotoletta and friggione? A love marriage.
Bolognese cutlet recipe
serves 4
List of the Ingredients
four thin slices of veal, about 180 g each
100 g Parma ham
150 g grated Parmesan cheese
two large eggs
breadcrumbs without salt to taste
broth (also vegetable), 200 ml
200 g butter, preferably clarified
salt to taste.
Tip: You can also fry the cutlets in seed oil
Method
In a large, rimmed dish, beat the eggs with a generous pinch of salt.
Dip the veal slices on both sides, first in the egg and then in the bread crumbs.
Melt the butter in a large skillet and slowly fry the cutlets.
Remove the cutlets from the butter, and dry them on paper towels. If you like, adjust the salt by adding a pinch of salt to each cutlet.
Change the pan or discard the frying butter from the pot and wipe it with paper towels.
Melt a knob of butter in the pan and add a tablespoon of olive oil.
Place the cutlets in the pan and sprinkle each with one/two tablespoons of Parmigiano.
Top each cutlet with a few slices of prosciutto crudo, sprinkle with more Parmesan, and add a few tablespoons of broth over the cutlets.
Cover with the lid and cook over a gentle flame for a few minutes.
Add a little more broth by pouring it in with a spoon. Close the pan with the lid until the cheese is melted, forming a soft and inviting cream on the meat.
Serve the Bolognese cutlet hot.
