Picatta

My first date with my husband was at a local italian restaurant. it was a lovely date, and many things about it were stellar, unfortunately i ordered the chicken picatta, and it was nasty. i'm sure you've seen this stuff, the glassy, gelatinous 'picatta sauce' three or four ashamed looking capers hiding in the slime, and a monster piece of chicken. gross. simply uncalled for, that's what it is. good picatta is so easy to make, takes almost no time, and DOES NOT need corn starch. last night i tried something new: pork chops. they were quite thick so i cut them in half cross wise then pounded them out to between 1/4 and 1/2 inch in thickness. if you're using chicken you'll still want to pound it, and possibly cut it into smaller pieces, huge chunks of meat are not in keeping with a delicate dish like this. dip the meat quickly into salt and pepper seasoned flour and pat all of the excess flour off, you don't want it to be 'breaded' per se, but a bit of flour on the meat will help keep it from sticking and thicken the sauce a bit. start a good amount of olive oil heating in a large skillet, medium heat. when it's hot add the meat and cook for about 2 minutes on each side, twice. you don't really want the meat brown, you want to cook it gently. when it's done, put it on a plate for a minute. into the skillet goes a few table spoons of butter, when it's done foaming cook about a half a small onion and one or two cloves of garlic (depending on how much you're making)until soft. last night i had some baby bella mushrooms that needed cooking so i threw them in too, they went really well with everything else. the lemon is the star of the sauce though, so don't over do it with either the onion or the garlic. when everything is soft, but not brown add one table spoon of fresh chopped thyme, the zest and the juice of half a lemon, a spoon of capers, and a splash of white wine let everything simmer for a few minutes to cook the alcohol out of the wine, then put the meat back into the pan and squeeze the rest of the lemon over it, if you want it really lemony (like i do) sprinkle the rest of the lemon zest in at this point too. serve over pasta of your choice sprinkled lightly with parmesan cheese.