Chicken Saltimbocca with Garlic and Olive Oil Mash and Roasted Vine Tomatoes

Chicken Saltimbocca with Garlic and Olive Oil Mash

 and Roasted Vine Tomatoes

The days are shorter, the nights cooler, there is a nip in the air and the trees are showing their first signs of burnished gold. Although barbecue weather is still here my mind has already flipped over to comfort food, crackling fires and cozy blankets.  I am one Canadian that hopes the warm spell continues for a while and that an Indian Summer will carry on into November.

 With the shorter days comes the longing for comfort foods. When sick, or tired, or far from home, everyone seems to yearn for the gastronomic equivalent of a warm sweater, a kiss on the forehead, or a favourite blanket. Comfort foods nourish the soul as well as our bodies and tend to be familiar foods that remind us of simpler times or of a contented childhood. The best medicine when the weather turns is undeniably some delicious comfort food. Just like the pending season your senses can be awakened with anything from a caramelized squash soup to a large bowl of comfortable macaroni and cheese. It is not uncommon for my home to be filled with warm, fragrant and earthy aromas of a slow cooked roast or bubbling crock pot.

With the onset of fall my favourite "fast food" chicken saltimbocca takes on the culinary version of a warm sweater and wraps intself not only in fine Italian proscuitto but takes on some autumnal flavours of sweet roasted tomatoes and a bed of garlic infused olive oil mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes, as we know them, are generally made with plenty of butter and either heavy or sour cream. But I'm liking this approach which is a great vehicle for us to use the best oils we can get our hands on.  It’s worth every penny to use a great-tasting, salad-dressing quality olive oil here, as the flavour of it will shine. They go wonderfully with any chicken dish but would also pair well with bluefish or salmon.

Back to the Future....

Over four years of blogging I have found many wonderful recipes to share on these pages. Some from my own kitchen, some from your creative blogs and web sites, and some from well known celebrities and chefs. I have been feeling a little nostalgic and was browsing these very pages just the other day, creeping back to the very beginning in 2006 when More Than Burnt Toast was in it's infancy and no more than "knee high to a grasshopper". We all have those stellar recipes from when we first started when we were lucky enough to find one comment and have maybe one reader; in my case even before I was taking photos of the dishes I prepared. My other motivation for reconnecting with the past is to create uniform formatting on this blog and this is a fun way for me to revisit past posts.

So here are a couple of flashback recipes from the very first baby steps here at MTBT with...

Greek Salad (Horiatiki)
Country Greek Salad

Cooking Light Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Crustless Ziuchini Pie

Val's Salmon in Filo

Strawberries and Cream Cheese Tart

**Chicken Saltimbocca with Garlic and Olive Oil Mash and Roasted Vine Tomatoes**

 Saltimbocca

• 3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon (8 g) all purpose white flour, plus 2 teaspoons
• 12 leaves fresh sage
• 6 slices Parma ham/Prosciutto, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon (15 mL) olive oil
• 1 tablespoon (15 mL) butter
• salt to taste
• ground pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons dry (30 mL) white wine
• 1/2 cup (118 mL) low-salt chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons (30 mL) fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoon (9 g) butter, unsalted

1. Slice the breasts horizontally into very thin cutlets. Place a leaf of sage on each piece and cover with a slice of prosciutto. Use a toothpick to keep the small package together if you wish. Coat each cutlet with the flour; then shake off the excess.

 2. Melt butter with oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add a few cutlets at a time. Start with the proscuitto side down, and cook over high heat. After 3 minutes, turn to brown the other side. Lower the heat, cover, and cook 2 minutes. Season with a little salt (prosciutto is already fairly salty) and pepper to taste. Remove the cutlets from the pan and keep them warm. Repeat the operation with the remaining cutlets.

 3. Pour the wine into the pan to deglaze, add 2 teaspoons flour and whisk. Add chicken broth and lemon juice.Bring to a boil. Whisk until sauce thickens slightly, about 30 seconds. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Place the cutlets onto warmed plates, remove the toothpicks (if using). Spoon the sauce over the cutlets then serve.

Garlic and Olive Oil Mash

• 2 1/2 pounds 'floury' baking potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
• 3 -6 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1/3 cup (79 mL) extra-virgin olive oil or more to taste
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• zest of 1 lemon
• a few sprigs parsley, roughly chopped
• salt to taste

1. Plunge the potatoes into a large pot of rapidly boiling water. Add the whole garlic cloves and cook, covered, until the potatoes are very tender - about 25 minutes

2.Drain the potatoes and garlic well and turn them into a warm serving bowl.

3.Using a potato masher, mash them coarsely, adding the olive oil a little at a time.

4.When all the oil has been added, taste and add more salt if needed and an abundance of black pepper.

5.Serve immediately.

 Roasted Vine Tomatoes

• about 200 g baby vine tomatoes
• olive oil
• Maldon salt

1. Preheat the oven to  (200 °C).

 2. Place the tomatoes onto a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast for 15 minutes.

 3. Serve the chicken on a bed of garlic and olive oil mash and top with a few roasted vine tomatoes.

 You are reading this post on More Than Burnt Toast at http://morethanburnttoast.blogspot.com. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author and or owner of More Than Burnt Toast. All rights reserved by Valerie Harrison.