CUTLETS**Lidia Bastianich's Chicken Breast with Eggplant and Fontina Cheese

By Unblond1

Although this was good, it's basically just chicken parm with eggplant and Dan didn't like the eggplant in any event so save yourself all this work and just make chicken parm. There are better eggplant recipes too.

Ingredients

• 4 medium slices of eggplant
• Salt
• 2 six-ounce boneless skinless Chicken Breast cutlets
• freshly ground Black Pepper
• 2 slices imported Italian Prosciutto (cut in half)
• 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon Butter
• All-Purpose Flour for dredging
• 2 peeled cloves Garlic
• 1/4 cup dry White Wine
• 1/3 about 1/3 cup hot Chicken Stock
• 1/4 cup canned Italian Plum Tomatoes (preferably San Marzano; seeded and chopped)
• 4 fresh Basil Leaves
• 2 ounces shredded Italian Fontina cheese
• 2 tbsp. grated Grana Padano
• 1 tablespoon Tomato Sauce or liquid from the canned tomatoes

Details

Servings 2
Adapted from beta.abc.go.com

Preparation

Step 1

* Trim the stem from the eggplant. Remove strips of peel about 1 inch wide, leaving about half the peel intact, and cut the eggplant into 1-inch crosswise slices and sprinkle with salt.

* Season the chicken very lightly with salt and pepper (the prosciutto will give the dish plenty of salt as is), and layer each piece of chicken with half a slice of the prosciutto, tapping the prosciutto with the back of a knife so it adheres to the meat.

* Heat the olive oil and the butter in a heavy, wide skillet over medium heat. Dredge the chicken in flour to coat both sides lightly, tapping off excess flour, and add to the skillet, prosciutto side down. Cook just until the prosciutto is light golden, about 2 minutes. Turn, and cook until the second side is browned, about 2 minutes.

* Remove to a plate and keep warm. Dredge the eggplant slices lightly in flour and fry the eggplants slices on both sides until lightly browned, draining on paper towels as you are done. When finished add additional olive oil if necessary and scatter the garlic in the skillet. Cook, turning, until golden brown, about 3 minutes. (Lower the heat, if necessary, so the bits of flour that stick to the pan don’t burn while the garlic is browning.)

* Pour the wine into the skillet, bring to a boil, and boil until it’s almost completely evaporated. Pour in the stock, and drop in the butter. Bring to a boil, stir in the chopped tomatoes, and boil until the sauce is lightly reduced and glossy, about 4 minutes.

* Meanwhile, arrange the chicken scaloppine side by side in a baking dish. Cover them with the eggplant, cutting or tearing the slices as necessary to cover all the scaloppine more or less evenly, and top each with a couple of leaves of basil. Toss the shredded Fontina and Grana Padano cheese together and divide evenly over the eggplant, dotting the cheese with a dab of tomato sauce.

* Spoon the pan sauce around the chicken, cover with a lid, and let it simmer until the cheese is melted and lightly browned in places and the sauce is lightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Transfer the bubbly chicken to serving plates, and spoon the sauce— through a strainer if you like— around the plates. Decorate the plates with additional basil leaves, if desired.