Roberto's Piccata Limone

After last week's risotto fiasco - I decided to go for something a little safer. Luckily, I have a guardian angel in Montreal named Roberto (a musical genius and a member of UNIVERSKA, who understands that "I am just trying to do my best people!" So he suggested Piccata Limone, with a prosciutto and bocconcini entré and limoncello for desert.  

Mozzarella with Prosciutto di Daniele - an easy entré full of gorgeous Italian products.

Simple enough. For the entré I wrapped mozzarella (not di bufala, I know, such a shame but my grocery store is very 'less than') in Prosciutto di Daniele (very thin, just melts in your mouth, plus the name of an old boyfriend, so the choice was easy) and sprinkled some fresh mint on top, added olive oil, balsamic vinegar di Modena, freshly ground pepper (Ok, that's a lie, it wasn't freshly ground) and VOILA.


I served this entré at quarter to eight to avoid any crankiness on Franck's behalf. Then I was back in his kitchen to work out the rest. 


I started with no-fuss 'mash' salad. Chopped up some chalot, red wine vinegar, virgin olive oil, salt and pepper (the pepper might not be ground but the salt is freaking A-mazing, the caviar of salt, otherwise known as: Gros Sel de Guérande) and the mash. I can't find 'mash' on the Internet, but it's some kind of green plant that grows in rivers and can be used as an alternative to lettuce. 


Then I got started on the chicken. Now there were many recipes for Piccata Limone that I found online, and all were different.. so I used the ingredients that I am familiar with and made my own:

demi-salt butter
1 big garlic clover
3 chicken breasts (anticipating Franck wanting seconds)
flour (don't ask how much)
pepper
salt
white wine (don't ask how much)
lemon juice (a few squirts, whatever, how are you supposed to measure this??)
1 lemon
chopped parsley

I put a few slices of butter in a pan, melted it. Then I threw in the chopped garlic and let it cook at a low heat. Following this, I covered the chicken breasts in the flour, salt and pepper mixture... which was fun - but made the kitchen a mess. I put the chicken in the pan and let it cook for one minute on both sides then I took the chicken out, cleaned off the pan, added lots of lemon juice, white wine and chopped lemons and put the chicken back, added parsley and cooked until it was done.

In the meantime, I boiled water, put rice in, took that out, and put everything on a dish and served.

I accompanied this dish with a 2009 Muscadet, a fresh baguette, and Franck's grin. He took one bite - and I kid you not said: "See bébé, I knew you weren't handicapped."

As for desert - Roberto had suggested limoncello, but I'm not at Dad's house, so we don't have that in the freezer. Instead, I served fresh goat's cheese from Touraine (apparently THE place for goat's cheese), more baguette - and everyone's favourite, a Heineken. 

Not sure if beer is the appropriate desert drink - but I have never met a man who said - "No, I don't feel like a beer." So I think it's safe to serve at any time.

And now for the BEST part, I did all this wearing my favourite Sergio Rossi's probably the happiest shoes I own!

Aren't these Sergio Rossi's divine? I found them in a little shop in Cairo years ago and they still make me smile.