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Cotoletta alla Petroniana

Name: Cotoletta alla Petroniana
Prep time: 26 min
Total time: 26 min
Cuisine: Italian · Emilia-Romagna
Ingredients: veal cutlets — 480 g; all-purpose flour — 60 g; eggs — 100 g; bread crumbs — 120 g; unsalted butter — 100 g; parma ham — 80 g; parmesan cheese — 100 g; strong beef broth — 150 g; salt — 5 g; freshly ground white pepper — 3 g; freshly grated nutmeg — 1 g

Cotoletta alla Petroniana reads umami 7.8, richness 6.2 and salinity 6.0 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Italian · Emilia-Romagna main, about 26 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 8.7 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 1.4 / 10
Sour & Bright — 0.6 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 0.9 / 10
Rich & Fat — 6.9 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 2.0 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 7.8 · Richness 6.2 · Salinity 6.0 · Funk & Ferment 2.7 · Nutty 2.4 · Warm Spice 1.9 · Sweetness 1.4 · Heat 0.8 · Bitterness 0.8 · Earthy 0.7 · Sourness 0.6

What's in it (11)

veal cutlets — 480 g
all-purpose flour — 60 g
eggs — 100 g
bread crumbs — 120 g
unsalted butter — 100 g
parma ham — 80 g
parmesan cheese — 100 g
strong beef broth — 150 g
salt — 5 g
freshly ground white pepper — 3 g
freshly grated nutmeg — 1 g

Time & effort: about 26 min · effort: medium

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 170.5 kcal, 16 g protein, 13.7 g fat, 10.3 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains dairy · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

Season the beaten cutlets on both sides with the salt, white pepper and nutmeg. Dredge them in the flour and knock the excess off, then through the beaten egg, then press them firmly into the breadcrumbs so the coating is even and sticks.
Heat the clarified butter in a wide frying pan over medium heat until it foams and smells nutty but is not browning. Fry the cutlets 2 to 3 minutes a side, until the crumb is an even hazelnut brown and crisp. Clarified butter matters here: whole butter will burn its milk solids black long before the crust is set. Lift them onto a rack, not paper, so the underside stays crisp.
Heat the oven to 190 C. Sit the cutlets in a buttered gratin dish in one layer, and lay a slice of prosciutto over each. Do not overlap them.
Cover each cutlet with a thick blanket of Parmigiano shavings, right to the edges.
Pour the hot broth into the dish around the cutlets, so it comes 5 mm up the sides and never over the tops. This is the difference between this dish and a Milanese cutlet under cheese: the broth steams up and keeps the veal moist while the crumb above stays dry.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the Parmigiano has melted into a golden sheet and the broth is bubbling at the edges. Serve straight from the dish, spooning a little of the reduced broth over each cutlet.
Substitutions: capon broth can stand in for the strong beef broth.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Cacio e Pepe with Crispy Prosciutto — Italian
Cacio e Pepe — Italian
Galette de Sarrasin Complète — French · Brittany
Baked Mac and Cheese with Crispy Breadcrumb Top — American
Cheese Pie (Khachapuri Imeruli) — Georgian

Keep reading: what umami, richness, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.