You may think that milanesa napolitana or milanesa alla Napoli is from Italy. But the dish actually was invented in Argentina. Legend has is that the chef José Napoli, the owner of the restaurant Napoli in Buenos Aires fried his last cutlet a bit too dark in the 1940s. So when one of his regulars asked for a “milanesa” or cutlet and that was the only one left, he improvised and place ham, cheese, and tomatoe sauce on top camouflaging the burnt parts. His guest got excited, thus making this “milanes napolitana” as José decided to call his invention a regular and popular dish on the menu in his restaurant. It didn’t take long for it to become famous in all of Argentina and is served nowadays worldwide with a lot of Argentine pride.
Whenever I am asked what my favorite Uruguayan dish is and we are going the savory route, I will always say milanesa, a simple, but good cutlet. Yes, obviously I have a recipe on my blog. I have to admit, I had not eaten milanesa napolitana too often, in my family the plain milanesa was preferred. It was only as an adult that I finally gave in and ordered it during a holiday in Argentina and Uruguay. Yes, it may be considered the cousin of a cordon bleu. I decided to make the tomatoe sauce myself, but feel free to used canned one instead.
Milanesa napolitana is a fried cutlet from Argentina which has a grilled topping of ham, cheese, and tomatoe sauce. First wash meat and pat dry. Sieve flour onto a large casserole dish until plate is covered. Whisk eggs with salt, pepper and finely chopped parsley and put into a deep plate or additional casserole dish. In the last and third flat plate frist spread the bread crumbs. Plate should be fully covered again. Flatten out the meat with a hammer, it should be evenly thin. It is best to do this between plastic wrap not to destroy the meat structure. Once it is evenly flattened out, season with pepper and salt and beat again, trying to incorporate the herbs. Do this on both sides. Place the meat on top of the flour, remove any excess, I do this by tapping the meat with my hands. Then put the meat in the egg wash, try to always get all parts moist, but don't let the meat soak up too much of the egg, then dunk it in the bread crumbs. Now prepare a frying pan and melt the clarified butter. The frying pan should be medium hot. It is best to fry one milanesa after the next, I don't recommend frying more than two at the same time. Fry on both sides until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper. Prepare all cutlets like this. Once ready, first evenly divide ham, then cheese slices and lastly tomatoe sauce on the cutlets and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Use the grill function on your oven, pay close attention, mine grilled them for 4 minutes. The cheese should melt. Season with oregano, salt and pepper. Traditionally it is eaten with fries, I decided to mashed potatoes. Often the herb dip chimichurri is served along as well. Uruguayan milanesas are traditionally served with mashed potatos or French fries, as you can see on the pictures, people love to use the chimichurri sauce instead of ketchup. Enjoy!Milanesa Napolitana from Argentina
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