This dish is a secondo — the main course of an Italian meal, served on its own with a contorno alongside.
Saltimbocca alla Romana
Veal scaloppine topped with prosciutto and sage, pan-fried in butter and finished with white wine. Saltimbocca means jumps in the mouth, and the name is honest. Each cutlet assembles in a minute and cooks in three, leaving behind a glossy pan sauce that begs to be sopped up with bread.
- Cook Time
- 30 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Pairing
- Frascati
The Story
Roman cooks built saltimbocca around a trinity that seasons itself: salted prosciutto, savory veal, and sage pressed together with a toothpick so the flavours fuse in the pan. The dish appears on every Roman trattoria menu, but its soul is domestic, fifteen minutes of cooking that taste like far more. The discipline is in the details. The veal must be pounded thin enough to cook through before the prosciutto crisps, the flour dusting whisper light, and the pan must be fierce enough to brown the butter without burning it. The wine sauce reduces in the time it takes to plate.
Ingredients
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Nutrition notes (verified ingredients)
- slices prosciutto di Parmaper 100 g: 200 kcal · 26.7 g protein · 11.7 g fat · 0 g carbs
- extra-virgin olive oilper 100 g: 800 kcal · 0 g protein · 93.3 g fat · 0 g carbs
≈ 60 kcal · 0 g protein · 7 g fat · 0 g carbs per serving (estimated from 1 of 8 ingredients — metric quantities of verified ingredients only)
Not yet verified against FoodData Central: veal scaloppine, about 80 g each, fresh sage leaves, plain flour, for dusting, unsalted butter, dry white wine, salt & black pepper, to taste.
Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central (snapshot 2026-09-11). Per-serving estimates assume the recipe is portioned evenly; per-100 g values are fixed reference figures.
Method
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Frascati
Crisp, faintly almond-scented and almost weightless — the everyday white of Rome, made to sit beside its simplest dishes.
Pairing notes
This pairing is editorial guidance for the dish — look for a bottle from Lazio at any wine shop you like. No retailer links are active on this site. See our affiliate disclosure.