What Is Veal Piccata?
Veal piccata is a dish in Italian cuisine consisting of a thinly sliced and sauteed cut of veal in a butter and lemon sauce with capers. White wine, shallots, and garlic are other common ingredients in veal piccata. The dish is often accompanied by pasta, potatoes, polenta, or rice. The word piccata means either “larded” or “tasty and piquant,” depending upon the source. Larding is a culinary technique in which slivers of fat are injected into a cut of meat in order to make it more tender and richer in flavor. While veal piccata was presumably first prepared this way, most recipes now use a thin slice of meat lightly breaded and fried in butter. Veal, the centerpiece of veal piccata, is the meat of a calf, or young cattle, usually slaughtered around four to six months after birth. Veal is very tender, delicate in flavor, and lighter in color than mature beef, ranging from ivory to rich pink depending upon the diet and age of the calf. Piccata is also commonly made with chicken instead
