Veal with Sweet Peppers and Mushrooms

A Mediterranean dish of veal stir-fried with herb and garlic marinated sweet bell pepper strips, seared button mushrooms and lemon zest.

The peppers in this Mediterranean-style dish of Veal with Sweet Peppers and Mushrooms are actually my own homemade Marinated Sweet Peppers. You can substitute with fresh, if you like, or even used a commercially prepared jar of roasted peppers, but the herb and garlic flavors of the marinated peppers work much better in this recipe.

Once tender veal strips are sautéed along with the peppers and seared button mushrooms, the result would be delicious served atop pasta, but is terrific with nothing more than thick ‘door-steps’ of crusty fresh bread…

The Ingredients

• ½ lb. good quality veal, sliced in thin strips;
• 1 cup (or so) of marinated pepper strips;
• 1 can of whole button mushrooms;
• 2 tbsp. reserved oil from the marinated peppers;
• 2 tbsp. Butter;
• 2 tbsp. Lemon juice;
• ½ tsp. grated Lemon Zest;
• Salt and Pepper;

In the above picture, you can see that I have taken the strips of marinated peppers out of their container and allowed the oil to drain off them. I will be using this to saute the main ingredients. If you are using fresh peppers, you can use a good quality olive oil and add a little thyme, garlic, and such other herbs as you think best.

The Method

Begin by heating a tablespoon of the reserved oil in a pan over moderately high heat. Add the mushrooms and season liberally with pepper. Sauté until they begin to brown and then add a tablespoon each of the of the butter and lemon juice. Continue to cook until the juice is absorbed and then remove the mushrooms to a bowl for the time being.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and when it is hot, add the veal and sauté, seasoning it with a little salt, until nicely browned. Make sure the pan is good and hot and, if necessary, add the veal in batches so that you don’t cool the pan off too much and cause the meat to steam cook.

Finally, add back the mushrooms and then stir in the peppers until all is heated through. Add the lemon juice and when this has been absorbed, finish the dish off with the last of the butter and serve, garnished, if you like, with some chopped flat-leaf parsley.

NOTES

This dish works very nicely just with the ingredients listed but I also think that some sliced black olive would look very nice and add an interesting note of flavor too. I used parsley for garnish mostly because the of the color, but you could achieve the same visual effect, as well as another taste twist, by adding some fresh, but quickly pre-blanched, slivers of green pepper just towards the end of cooking.

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