Brenda: Veal Piazza
July 12, 1999

(makes 4 servings, I like it the 2nd day!)

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 lbs. veal chunks (chicken also works)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 green bell peppers, cut into large chunks
1 can (10 1/2 oz) chicken broth
1 can (28) ounces whole tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1 lb. spaghetti

In a shallow dish, combine the flour with the salt and black pepper; dredge the veal chunks in the mixture. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the coated veal and cook until light golden, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, onion, and green peppers and cook for 5 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken broth, tomatoes with juice, red wine, oregano, basil, red pepper, and sugar. Reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti to desired doneness; drain. Serve the veal mixture over the spaghetti.



Jodi Graham Wood, July 19 We made the Veal Piazza last night (well, we actually opted for the chicken) and it was very tasty! It was probably a little too "soupy" because I didn't realize until it was too late that my can of chicken broth was 14 1/2 ounces instead of 10. We also tend to like things on the spicier side and next time I will probably add more red pepper (I did double it, will probably quadruple it!) and maybe a little salt. The tomatoes, onions, and peppers were very flavorful - we're looking forward to the leftovers. Jodi G. W.


teapot, July 25 I made the Piazza dish with chicken and oh my - I'm so surprised! It's delicious! It looked a little too soupy for my tastes - I'm not a big tomato soup fan and it didn't really resemble red spaghetti sauce (which I do like), so I wasn't expecting to like it at all as I was spooning some into my bowl of rice (too lazy to cook spaghetti right now especially since Eric won't be eating with me). It really is yummy! Wow...I added more crushed red chili pepper (probably at least 1 tsp. and it's still not hot enough!) because I like my food spicy. I used chicken instead of veal. I let the whole simmer a little longer than instructed in the recipe. I also limited salt use in this dish - I used no-salt-added tomatoes and less than 1/2 tsp salt. I also used a Knorr chicken bouillon cube, but only about 1/3 cube plus 1 packet of low-sodium chicken broth mix.I wasn't going to put all the green peppers in there because it looked like there was going to be too much of it, but it's quite alright just the way it is. Eric and I will be eating it tomorrow so I'll report on how much he likes it then! I wonder if it might be too soupy for spaghetti for my liking - it tasted nice with the rice (I have SE Asian parents - we had rice with everything growing up). I wonder how it would taste with fried polenta... Nisa


Michelle, August 3 > I made the Piazza dish with chicken and oh my - I'm so surprised! > It's delicious! It looked a little too soupy for my tastes Same reaction here. It was delicious! I let the whole thing cook too long (the green peppers were a bit mushy) but it was still really good. I have lots of leftovers, so I will be having this for lunch this week (I just have to cook some pasta) Great recipe! Michelle


fdrc, August 6 I finally got to make this last night. I used penne instead of spaghetti, and I also used chicken instead of veal. Yum! To solve the "soupiness" problem that others had, I turned the heat up to medium high after adding the liquids (instead of reducing the heat, like the recipe says). I also added a small amount (1 tbs or so) of heavy cream after about 7-8 minutes of cooking on medium high. The result was a creamier (though not really thick or heavy) sauce. It was absolutely delicious! Next time Charles gets to cook it; he always knows exactly what spices to add to make a great-tasting dish super fabulous. Fiona (looking forward to leftovers & not having to cook over the weekend!)


JulieD3964, August 25 Tonight, we tried the Piazza with chicken. This was our original plan for last night but the grocery store nearest to our house was completely out of any chicken aside from legs and thighs and didn't have any veal. They had plenty of pork but we don't eat that. The first mistake we made was using a 3 quart saute pan. Midway through, I had to switch to an old 6 quart Revere stockpot. Wish list for Hanukkah time is for an All-Clad stainless dutch oven - this is the seocnd time in as many months that I've made the same mistake. We cut down on the amount of onion using only 1/2 of a medium onion left over from last night. We also only used 1 and a half bell peppers. They turneed out to be very bitter in the finished product. The red wine we used was Gallo's Merlot. It smelled incredible as we were cooking it! Matt swears that this tastes just like a chicken dish at out favorite Italian restaurant except theirs has peas in it. I promised him that I'd try it with peas next time and no peppers. I'm really looking forward to using the leftovers since this recipe was so good the first day! Julie


Barbara Elizabeth Warner, September 5 And we *did* try the piazza, with moderate-to-good success. First, the substitutions (although I hadn't intended on any, some changes were inevitable): We used a large red onion, although the type wasn't specified in the recipe. (It was sitting in the fridge already cut up, and we didn't have any yellow onions anyway). It tasted just fine to me... We used two *very* large green peppers instead of three regular sized peppers - and these were apparently the smallest the store had! We don't normally eat peppers so I had to do some arm twisting to convince DH to even try them -- he tried foisting them off on me, even though I dont' like them any more than he does! Anyway, they were very mild in the dish and I quite liked them. We omitted the red pepper since we didn't have any (and wouldnt have any use for it if we'd bought it for this one dish). I made one addition which seemed like a good idea at the time, but ended up perhaps being the reason for the veal turning out tough: I added some corn starch at the end, and, following the instructions on the vox, brought the piazza to a boil for a minute or two in an attempt to thicken the sauce. Despite following the instructions virtually to a "t", our sauce was very "soupy"....and perhaps the extra boiling caused the veal to go tough?? Anyway, our overall impression of the meal was that it was good, but not great. This is probably more due to our accidently tough veal and dislike of peppers than anything else! I think the next time I try this recipe, I will cut the pepper into little chunks, (using less and putting in carrots too), use chicken instead, and I will also strain the sauce and thicken it separate, and put the three layers (pasta / veggies&meat / sauce) on the plate one after the other. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy the flank steak so that will have to wait until next weekend! This week, I think I'll try to do two or three recipes -- one of the older ones and the two new ones, so that I don't fall too far behind. The chicken tettrazini looks fabulous! Happy cooking, Barbara


jess h., September 8 I made the Chicken Piazza on Sunday. I left out the green peppers since DH and I hate them, and I followed Fiona's suggestion and used penne instead of spaghetti since that seemed somehow more appealing to me. I didn't really measure any of the ingredients... I think I used more onion, and I definitely used more spices (especially basil and crushed pepper) than the recipe called for. I wasn't in the modd for drinking a bottle of wine, so I used red cooking wine (made by Grey Poupon I think) in the recipe. Like others mentioned, the sauce seemed really soupy, so I turned it up to medium-high for 5-10 minutes and cooked it until most of the liquid was gone, then added a little half and half for a thicker, slightly creamy sauce. The verdict? DH liked it, I thought it was just OK. I'm not a huge fan of tomato-based sauces, so that might be why. Jessica


RNR, March 10 I _finally_ made the Veal Piazza, well, Chicken Piazza, as I never could find the right kind of veal for the right price. I knew that many people considered it soupy, so I did drain the tomatoes, but I left the other liquids the same. I immediately doubled the garlic in the recipe. It turned out very well and we both enjoyed it. Next time, I will probably make it with half red peppers and half green peppers. I put the remaining pasta into the pan while we ate dinner and it soaks up the liquid quite nicely. You could probably finish cooking the pasta in the sauce if you had a big enough pan, and that would reduce the liquid some more. All in all, it was a success and we will eat the leftovers tomorrow. Regards, Ranee