Saltimbocca, Roman Style

History

Saltimbocca — literally "jumps in the mouth" — reads today as quintessentially Roman, yet its parentage is contested. Several writers trace the dish north to Brescia: the historian Livio Jannattoni (1991) linked it to Brescians who cooked it in the pre-unification Lombardy-Veneto, and Rome is credited less with inventing it than with adopting it and spreading it through its taverns. Ada Boni's 1930 Roman cookbook likewise called it an imported preparation that only later earned "Roman citizenship." Artusi's 1891 recipe (No. 222) sits early in that written trail: he recorded eating the cutlets in Rome at a trattoria called Le Venete, on Via di Campo Marzio. His version is spare — thin milk-fed veal seasoned with salt and pepper, half a sage leaf and a slice of prosciutto laid on top, pinned with a toothpick and sautéed in butter, left only briefly on the ham side so it stays tender. The white-wine finish and the poultry or pork substitutions common elsewhere came later. The record does not settle whether Brescia or Rome can claim the dish first.

Ingredients

• g lean milk-fed veal
• sage
• prosciutto (fatty and lean)
• butter
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Cut milk-fed veal into thin cutlets (about half a finger thick), moisten, flatten, and season lightly with salt and pepper.
2. Top each with half a sage leaf and a thin slice of fatty-and-lean prosciutto, securing with a toothpick.
3. Cook in butter in a sauté pan, keeping the prosciutto side on the heat only briefly so it stays tender; serve with any garnish.