The Best Veal Marsala Recipe with Step-by-Step Instructions

How to Prepare the Absolute Best Veal Marsala

Veal Marsala is a classic Italian dish that showcases tender veal cutlets simmered in a rich and savory Marsala wine sauce. This elegant yet approachable recipe is perfect for home cooks who want to create a restaurant-quality meal with minimal effort.

The key to Veal Marsala’s distinctive flavor lies in the combination of earthy mushrooms, sweet Marsala wine, and a touch of garlic, which perfectly complements the delicate veal. Whether preparing a special dinner for guests or simply elevating your weeknight cooking, this dish is a crowd-pleaser.

One of the best things about Veal Marsala is its versatility. It can be served with various sides, such as pasta, mashed potatoes, or a simple green vegetable, making it easy to adapt to your preferences or the occasion. Plus, with just a few ingredients and a straightforward cooking process, you don’t have to be a professional chef to master it.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the essential steps to prepare a flavorful Veal Marsala that’s sure to impress. From selecting the proper cut of veal to achieving the perfect sauce consistency, you’ll have all the tips you need for success.

Chef Ricco Deluca's Help

I learned this veal marsala recipe from my friend Chef Ricco Deluca, who has forgotten more about cooking Italian food than I'll ever know. Ricco grew up in a family of cooks, including his mom, who was Frank Sinatra's family cook for over 15 years.

I wanted to know how to make the best veal Marsala, so I asked Ricco for his recipe and asked him to give me everything he could think of to make this the best veal Marsala recipe ever. I questioned why he did something this way and why others were that way. The final result is filled with many details that only a real foodie would enjoy.

For those who want the recipe without all the detailed explanations, I've included it below. But if you want to know why Chef Ricco cooks the mushrooms separately from the rest of the dish, you'll want to check out the other parts of the story.

I'll discuss different ingredients like salted or unsalted butter, what type of veal, and why demi-glace. Ricco and I discussed cooking equipment, including what kind of pan to use and what size. We also discussed cooking techniques and adjustments to make while preparing this dish.

You may think it is information overload, but this is what I love about cooking. I don't just want to know what to do, when to do it, and how long to do it; I want to know WHY.

And remember to check out my recipe for Chicken Marsala here.

📖 Recipe

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What Ingredients Do I Need to Make Restaurant Quality Veal Marsala?

What I want to do here is to start looking at this recipe in more detail. When I asked Ricco for his recipe, I was much more novice than I am today and had many questions. I wanted to know what he did in his recipe and why he did it. I also like to know what products he used and why they mattered.

Veal Marsala Recipe Ingredients

There are few ingredients in the Very Best Veal Marsala Recipe, but what you use can make a difference in the final product. So here are the ingredients in Ricco's recipe and why he likes to use them.

What is the best cut of veal for this recipe?

You want the thin, lean, boneless cutlet or scaloppini that comes from different muscles in the leg.

Butter - Salted or Unsalted?

Best to use unsalted butter so you can control the amount of salt. You can and will adjust the seasonings at the end, but it's easier to add salt and impossible to remove if over-salted.

Clarified butter would work great with this dish, but it takes extra time and effort unless you have some in your refrigerator.

What type of oil?

Use 90% canola oil blended with 10% olive oil. Chef Ricco explained that many professional chefs use a blend of oil because the canola oil has a higher smoking point while the olive oil adds flavor.

Besides, as much as I love the taste of olive oil, you want its flavor to be balanced with the flavor of the meat and Marsala.

Why use both oil and butter?

I like using a combination of butter and oil because the butter adds flavor while the oil, with its higher smoking point, allows you to cook at a higher temperature. Heat is your friend when sautéing, so the combination gives you the best cooking fats.

Why coat the cutlets with flour?

Although Ricco likes the flavor of veal Marsala better without flour, he suggests using it for the following reasons:

•  After tenderizing the meat, it will bleed, and the flour will help seal it in.
•  Unless you will immediately serve the veal from the pan to the plate and eat it immediately, the flour crust will hold in some of the juices and, therefore, flavor.
•  The flour will hold more of the sauce to the veal.
•  Some people enjoy the "mouth feel" associated with a flour-created crust.

What is seasoned flour?

If you take some flour and add salt and pepper to it, you have seasoned flour. Chef Ricco likes to make a batch of seasoned flour and store it in a container in his pantry. This way, he always has some on hand whenever he needs to coat something for sautéing.

To make a batch for yourself, combine 2 cups of all-purpose flour with one teaspoon of salt & 1 teaspoon of pepper.

You can experiment with different seasonings to create your unique blend, but don't get too carried away, or you will have a pantry filled with too many flour containers.

What is demi-glace?

Demi-glace is a brown sauce reduction essential in making classic sauce. A simple way to describe demi-glace is to say it is a rich brown sauce reduced to a thick gelatinous consistency.

Culinary students spend much time in cooking school learning to make stocks, stock reductions, and glaces like demi-glaces. Professional chefs often have a large pot of veal and beef bones simmering day and night to make the stuff. You can find a good recipe for making it at home at demi-glace.

What is Marsala?

Marsala is a fortified wine that is imported from Sicily and can be used for cooking or drinking. You will find it in both dry and sweet flavors at your local liquor store. I prefer to cook with dry-flavored wine. Marsala has a dark amber color with a distinctive smoky flavor.

You don't have to buy the most expensive bottle of Marsala, but stay away from the cheapest. You especially want to avoid the fake Marsala cooking wine in supermarkets. It's not worth the bottle they put it in.

You may want to use what you don't cook with as an aperitif, a light alcoholic drink that is often served before dining to stimulate the appetite.

What is a shallot?

Shallots are members of the onion family. They are much smaller than traditional-looking onions and have a paper-thin brown skin covering purple-tinged white flesh. They have a combination of onion-garlic flavors but are milder than either one.

You can find them at most supermarkets, usually next to the garlic. You want to look for well-shaped heads that are not sprouting. You will find them in various sizes, so buy according to your recipe.

What is white pepper?

White pepper comes from the same dried berry as black pepper, the Poper nigrum, but when producing white pepper, the berry is allowed to ripen so the outer skin shrinks entirely and is removed. The remaining grayish-white kernel has a milder flavor than black pepper.

It is typically used in lighter-colored dishes where you don't want the color of black pepper to contrast with the sauce. You see, white pepper is used a lot in cream sauces.

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What Type Of Cooking Pan For Veal Marsala?

This section looks at the best cookware for making this dish at home, but these are only suggestions from Chef Ricco. They are by no means absolute requirements.

If your kitchen is equipped with other cookware, don't feel like you have to go out and buy additional pans to make this dish. Instead, use what you have and adapt your cooking to your tools.

What type of cooking pan and what size?

Ideally, Chef Ricco recommends using an 8 – 10 inch sauté pan or frying pan and cooking three at a time. You never want to crowd a pan when you are sautéing, or the meat will steam rather than fry properly.

Besides, you will add the meat back to the pan to reheat when the sauce is done.

Why not just use a 14-inch pan and cook them all simultaneously?

This was my question since I owned a large frying pan. Ricco responded:

The smaller pan holds heat better, especially on home cooks' smaller stovetops. The 14-inch pans are great for a commercial kitchen with those giant BTU-burning stoves, but most home stoves need more power to get those big pans hot and keep them hot.

All pans, like ovens, have hot spots. The bigger the pan, the bigger the hot spot, and hot spots cause erratic cooking.

Smaller pans maintain the heat better for proper cooking. Remember, when you add the meat to a hot pan, the initial reaction is for the pan to cool down. And Chef Ricco tells me time and time again, "Heat is your friend when cooking." A smaller pan will be less affected by any sudden additions.

Many of the larger pans on my stove top just don't fit the burner, so I have to try working with smaller ones until I can afford a new stove.

What about non-stick-coated pans?

Not a good idea for this dish. We want the pan to get hot and create a fond (the brown bits stuck to the pan after sautéing, also called sucs) that will add flavor to the sauce. It doesn't work well with nonstick pans because nothing sticks to the pan to create fondness.

Does the frying pan material matter?

Copper

Some experienced cooks like working with copper pots and pans because of their superior heat conductivity. You crank up the heat, and these pans heat up fast. This is great if you know what you are doing, but it's easy to overcook or even burn your food instantly if you are not paying extreme attention.

Another reason experienced cooks like copper is that they don't have hot spots. So you don't have to worry about one area of your pan being hotter than the rest of the pan, allowing much more even cooking.

They also look great but take a lot of work to keep in tip-top condition and are costly.

Stainless Steel

An excellent choice for preparing this dish because the veal will stick some, thus creating the fond. Many of you don't want anything you cook to stick and go nonstick. I can understand this for some foods like eggs and fish, but I want the stickiness if I make a pan sauce.

Stainless steel is also cheaper than copper, and stainless doesn't conduct heat nearly as fast as copper, so it is more forgiving for beginner and intermediate-level cooks. Plus, there is much less maintenance with stainless compared to copper. You can even put many brands of stainless cookware into the dishwasher. Then there's the versatility. Acidic foods don't react to stainless steel like copper and pure aluminum.

The downside to cooking with stainless is less than stellar heat conductivity. More hot spots and uneven temperatures come with stainless steel, but if you are careful, you can make that work for you.

Aluminum and Hard Anodized Aluminum

So what's the difference? Aluminum that has been "anodized" in less technical terms means the aluminum has been placed in chemical baths to prepare it for an electrical charge. This will alter the aluminum by making the oxide layer thicker, making it stronger (harder) and less likely to corrode.

I love hard anodized aluminum pans because they have excellent heat conductivity, not as good as copper but better than stainless steel. In addition, they are tough compared to aluminum (twice as hard as stainless steel) and will hold up better when tossed around on the stove and in your cabinets.

They perform well by conducting heat evenly and quickly, but not as fast as pure aluminum. And they are straightforward to maintain. When I started teaching myself to cook over 25 years ago, one of my first cookware purchases was anodized aluminum pots and pans. I still have them, although I'm slowly in the process of replacing them as they are starting to warp.

The problem today with anodized aluminum pans is that they are all nonstick. I have not found a brand that sells these pans, NOT nonstick. As mentioned above, I want some foods to stick to the pan to make great pan sauces.

I know very little about pure aluminum pans, but I found a source that sells primarily to restaurants and purchased a couple of their pans to try out. I know they are great conductors of heat, are much cheaper than stainless and copper, and are used in most professional restaurants.

The biggest problem with pure aluminum pans is they react with acidic foods, and there is a possibility the aluminum can leach into the food. There is a lot of research on both sides of this issue, and I urge you to do your homework before purchasing any pan of any material. I'll leave it at that.

Blends

I just purchased this incredible Vollrath 3 Quart Saute Pan from an online restaurant supply store I love. It has a 3-ply construction with an 18-8 stainless interior and an aluminum core to provide even heat on the bottom of the pan and side walls. With a silicone-coated handle that is oven-safe to 450°F, it feels great in my hand; I can't wait to see how it performs.

Another blend is copper with stainless steel; I'm sure there are others. Depending on your budget and cooking needs, there's something for everyone.

Bottom Line

The best pan for making this dish is the one you have in your kitchen cabinet. You'll do better if you use a pan that is not nonstick, but if all you have is nonstick, don't let that stop you from making this veal Marsala perfected. If you plan to make more pan sauces, you can purchase one of the pans I described above.

Some of My Favorite Veal Recipes