Big Green Egg – experiments with Italian veal

One thing we wanted to experiment with was Vitello Tonnato – a classic Italian dish served cold – this has the advantage that you can prepare in advance and is ready just when you want it.  Our version was going to have a little twist on the classical Italian version – but before that a little shopping and some experimentation was needed!  The first confession is that I have never knowingly cooked veal and certainly never on the BGE!  So the first thing was to track down the veal.  As we were approaching the Italian holiday of Ferragosto – on the 15^th of August there was a good chance of finding some reasonably easily!  We were hunting for what is in effect a veal silverside – which is used to make veal escalope – but the plan was to cook it whole let it go cold and slice it very thinly!!

Well we found a piece of veal – but just one and a little large for the 2 of us at 1Kg!  but this gave the opportunity for some experimentation!  We cut off about a quarter, removed the “silverskin” then added a little “rub”. We were limited with what we had to hand, so tried simple salt and pepper, a little paprika and some dried  herbs.  The piece of veal was going to be served hot with a lightly spiced Italian sauage, with a green salad.  The BGE was set up to cook indirectly with the platesetter feet up and the cast iron grill on top and was brought up to just 130-140C.  The sausages were popped on first  as we wanted those cooked through and then was joined after about 10 mins by the veal with the temperature probe sitting in the centre of the meat.  The plan was to cook it till it just reached a core temperature of 52C which should be around medium rare.  Meanwhile a “Tonnato sauce” was made – not normally served with hot meat it did give the opportunity to experiment a little (and I have to say it does go well with hot meat!! )– for the recipe – see Vitello Tonnato.  Once the veal had reached 52C it was taken off the grill and wrapped in foil to rest for around 10 mins.  When the veal was sliced there was just a touch of pink, slightly less than I would have chosen suggesting that the core temperature of the meat continued to rise when it was resting – note to self for next time!!

However, served with the salad and the Tonnato sauce with just a little of the meat juice that collected in the aluminium foil spooned onto the veal – it was looking good!  The veal was tender, very lightly smoky and the outside of the meat had a little tang from the paprika and white pepper

– simply delicious!!