Ask A Boston Chef: Valentine's Day Red Snapper Milanese

So, for whatever reason, you've decided you're staying in for Valentine's Day. But that doesn't mean the romance needs to go out the window. If you're thinking about cooking up a meal for your loved one, check out Chef & Owner of Prezza Anthony Caturano's recipe for a traditional Italian dish: Red Snapper Milanese with radishes, cucumbers, watercress and tarragon vinaigrette.

Red Snapper Milanese with radishes, cucumbers, watercress and tarragon vinaigrette

Yields 2 portions

Ingredients

Fish
2 filets red snapper (skin off)
3 cups panko breadcrumbs
1 cup flour
2 eggs beaten
2 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoons fresh cracked black pepper
3 tablespoons canola oil

Salad
4 ounces sliced radishes
4 ounces sliced cucumber
1 bunch watercress
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
4 teaspoon champagne vinegar
1 tablespoon minced shallot
¼ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Method

Fish
Heat 3 tablespoons of canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. While the pan is warming up, season the fish with salt and pepper. Then dust the fish with flour, dredge in the beaten eggs, and place in the panko breadcrumbs. When fish is in the panko, press down gently on fish so the breadcrumbs stick to the fish. Place fish in the pan cook for 7 minutes each side.

Salad
Whisk together vinegar, mustard, shallots, salt and pepper in a medium sized bowl, then slowly stream the oil in, whisking until emulsified. Whisk in tarragon. Toss the rest of the ingredients with vinaigrette. Place salad on top of fish and serve.

Chef Anthony Caturano
Prezza
24 Fleet Street
Boston, MA 02113
(617) 227-1577
Prezza.com

Anthony Caturano grew up in Revere. Instead of following in the footsteps of his father, a prominent Boston accountant, he opted out of Merrimack College to pursue his culinary calling. Armed with a degree that he received in 1993 from The Culinary Institute of America, he got his start cooking with Chef Todd English, of Boston's famed Olives during the 1990's. Caturano later rounded out his training in Miami where he cooked for Mark Militello at Mark's Place and Mark's Las Olas. He then went on to join Nemo and Mike Swartz, who at the time was growing his restaurants empire (Nemo, Big Pink, Shoji and Prime One Twelve, in Miami's SoFi district). From there, Caturano headed to the West Coast to cook inside the wildly popular, Pinot Hollywood, where he honed his craft under Chef Joachim Splichal.

Somewhere between Miami and Los Angeles, Caturano detoured to his ancestral homeland of Italy, where he spent a month bonding with his grandmother's birthplace of Prezza, a tiny ancient village in the Abruzzi region, and in the Northern regions, where he studied the cooking traditions of Piemonte. In 2000, he opened Prezza as tribute to his love of Italy and to honor his grandmother's hometown. Prezza's cuisine embodies the simplicity of the region and its allegiance to both land and sea. The focus is on earthiness, bold flavors and spicing, with meats cooked on a wood-fired grill and pasta handmade on the premises.