Nonna Maria was born in 1933 in the town of Piateda (population: roughly 2,000) in Valtellina. She was the youngest of five siblings, with two sisters and two brothers. She tells stories of running errands as a child, walking 5km to Sondrio (population: 22,000) to buy basic supplies for the family, adding water to the milk pail to hide the fact that she snuck some sips. Eating prosciutto once a week was a treat.
At 21 years old, she married Alberto Bertoli, 19 years her senior, the second generation running a shop in the historic centre of Sondrio selling glassware and ceramics. Alberto Sr passed away in 1990, but Maria still remained in the heritage stone building from the 1800s with traditional tiled roofs, where the couple once lived with their daughters and Alberto’s parents. Their shop is now closed, the ground floor leased out to a smallgoods store and boutiques.
These luxurious recipes using aged cheese, tender meat and expensive spices, in addition to the humble mountain food of her village, comprised Maria’s entire repertoire in the kitchen.
When Maria moved to the city, her mother-in-law taught her how to cook, particularly the final four recipes in this series which are not local to Valtellina per se, but rather belong to greater Milan and even northern Italy in general (particularly Vitello Tonnato, which originated in neighbouring Piedmont). These luxurious recipes using aged cheese, tender meat and expensive spices, in addition to the humble mountain food of her village, comprised Maria’s entire repertoire in the kitchen– hence avoiding ingredients such as tomato, fresh fish, olive oil and chilli.
The Costoletta from Milan is a flattened bone-in veal cutlet dredged in egg and breadcrumbs before being fried in butter. Pork or chicken may be easier to find in Australia and Japan (make sure to cook thoroughly if substituting). Italian breadcrumbs are simply stale bread that is ground down and dried– it's possible to do this yourself, although the crispier Japanese panko are used in these photos. Clarified butter can be made at home as well, or you can purchase ghee in the South Asian or health food aisle of the supermarket. Rather than serving with a lemon wedge, you can sprinkle a bit of red wine vinegar. It is best paired with bubbles like Franciacorta or Prosecco, or a Nebbiolo– nothing heavier.
Maria’s hack is to fry the leftover egg in the leftover butter.
These cutlets are pan-fried, not deep-fried. There is always some egg mixture left in the dish after the meat is breaded– Maria’s hack is to cook the leftover egg in the leftover butter at the end. The result will not be pretty– stray breadcrumbs will brown and stick to your omelette. It does, however, always remind us of Maria and makes us smile.
Costoletta alla Milanese recipe
Serves 4
4x 350 g veal chops on the bone, brought to room temperature
4 eggs
Plain flour for dusting
200g fine breadcrumbs
300g clarified butter (ghee), or butter and frying oil
Fine sea salt
Place a cutlet on a thick board on a sturdy work surface. Gently pound the meat to an even thickness (about 5 mm) with a meat mallet. Repeat for each piece.
Beat the egg with a pinch of salt in a shallow dish.
Spread out the flour and breadcrumbs, each in their own shallow dish.
Melt the clarified butter in a frying pan.
Dip each chop first in the flour, then the egg and finally coat with the breadcrumbs, pressing them on with your fingers.
Heat the clarified butter in a deep, wide pan to 110 degrees celsius.
On low heat, pan-fry each chop for about 7 minutes on each side until golden brown.
Remove from the oil and drain.
Transfer to a warm serving dish and serve immediately with salt.
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