Until this month, I’d never cooked veal. That seems a little strange considering how much Carrie and I have traveled through Italy and France over the years. It’s everywhere there and we’ve eaten plenty of it. Somehow I’d just never made it myself.

The whole thing started while watching a travel/food show.  Not shocking if you know me at all. I was watching Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis sharing a plate of veal saltimbocca in Rome. It looked delicious and it reminded me of the time years ago when we unexpectedly ran into Giada.

We crossed paths inside the Point Arena Lighthouse. I didn’t recognize her immediately but she looked awfully familiar. Apparently I wasn’t nearly as subtle as I thought because she caught me staring. We exchanged one of those awkward little smiles that says, “Yes, I know why you’re looking,” and continued on our separate ways. 

As soon as the travel/food show ended, I decided I had to try making saltimbocca myself. That meant a trip to Corti Brothers. I never see veal for sale around here, but if anyone was going to have it, I figured Daryl Corti would. If you’ve never been to Corti Brothers in Sacramento, it’s one of those stores where you never leave with only what you came for. I walked in looking for veal cutlets and, thankfully, found some. Naturally, a few other things found their way into my basket before I made it to the checkout.

For those unfamiliar with the dish, saltimbocca starts with thin veal cutlets, each topped with a fresh sage leaf and wrapped in prosciutto. They’re browned in butter and olive oil, then finished with white wine and a little more butter.  Very simple. When I flipped the first piece over in the pan and saw that crispy prosciutto, I couldn’t help but wonder how I’d made it this far without ever hearing of this dish.

It was every bit as good as I’d hoped. Carrie looked over and said, “You know saltimbocca literally means ‘jump in the mouth.'” I’d completely forgotten that Giada had explained that during the show.

Our youngest daughter wasn’t quite as enthusiastic. Like many Americans, she’s a little uncomfortable with the idea of veal. She still managed to choke it down, though, and admitted it tasted pretty good. As we enjoyed dinner, we started talking about how well the dish might pair with our Patriarche wine. Then the conversation turned to whether it might make a fun recipe to share with our wine club.

There was just one problem: most people aren’t going to want to cook and eat veal. Then I remembered something I’d dismissed almost immediately. When I first started looking up recipes, the first video I found was Andrew Zimmern making chicken saltimbocca. You know the tv network’s Bizarre Foods guy? At the time I ignored it because I wanted the veal I saw on TV. But now chicken made perfect sense.

Saltimbocca 2.0.

This time we used boneless, skinless chicken thighs. We paired it with our not yet released 2024 Patriarche. It was fantastic. Carrie’s only critique? “More sage.” She was right.

So that’s the version we’re sharing with our club in September. It keeps everything we loved about the classic—the crispy prosciutto, buttery white wine sauce, and fragrant sage but uses an ingredient almost everyone can get behind.

And if I ever run into Giada again, we can talk about saltimbocca instead of me just standing there staring at her.

Awkward.

Josh Bendick
Co-winemaker