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Veal Marsala is an Italian-American classic, veal cutlets in a rich and flavourful sauce made with Marsala wine, mushrooms and parsley. Super comforting and easy to make, serve it with mashed potatoes and green beans.
Veal Marsala, also known as Scaloppine al Marsala is one of those meals that is simple and easy enough to make on busy weeknights but is fancy enough for entertaining or even date night.
It’s made with veal cutlets served in a rich and delicious marsala sauce with juicy mushrooms, garlic and fresh parsley.
Don’t worry, if you can’t get your hands on veal you can use chicken or pork instead and it’s just as delicious. Serve it with some creamy mash to soak up all the sauce and green beans.
Ingredients – what you need
See the photo below that shows you everything you need to make veal marsala plus some important notes.
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Pin It- Veal – make sure your veal cutlets are about 1/4 inch (0.5cm) thick so they cook quickly. Use a rolling pin to bash them thin if needed.
- Flour – the veal is dredged in flour to not only give a nice texture to the meat but help thicken the sauce.
- Mushrooms – I use Crimini mushrooms (chestnut mushrooms UK) but you can pretty much use any kind of mushrooms you like.
- Garlic – fresh garlic has the best flavour don’t use ground or powdered garlic.
- Stock – low sodium chicken stock is best, beef stock would be too strong and overpower the veal.
- Marsala wine – marsala is a sweet fortified wine like sherry, you don’t need an expensive one for this.
- Parsley – fresh parsley is a must don’t use dried!
Season the veal with salt and pepper and slightly press it in so it sticks. Sprinkle the flour on a plate and dredge each piece of veal in the flour until lightly coated, shake off any excess (photos 1 & 2).
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or frying pan and fry the veal for 2 minutes on each side until browned and cooked through, you’ll need to do this in batches and add more oil as needed. Remove from the pan and set aside on a plate (photos 3 & 4).
Add the butter to the pan, once melted add the mushrooms and sprinkle with a little salt. Fry the mushrooms for around 5-7 minutes until the excess moisture has been released and they start to cook down (photo 5).
Add the garlic and fry for 1 more minute. Add the marsala and let it simmer until the liquid has reduced by half then add the chicken stock (photos 7 & 8).
Simmer the sauce for 5-7 minutes until it starts to thicken. Add the veal back into the pan to warm through (photos 9 & 10).
Serve the veal with a sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley
Recipe tips and FAQs
- Don’t overcook the veal – because the veal cutlets are really thin (1/4 inch/0.5cm) they cook really fast and need only around 1 minute on each side. If you cook them for any longer they’ll be too tough.
- Cooking with marsala – adding marsala to sauces is an easy way to add a lot of flavour (we use it in our Italian roast beef recipe too). Don’t spend too much on a bottle it doesn’t need to be expensive but leaving it out will totally change the flavour of this dish.
- Serving suggestions – we usually serve our veal marsala with creamy mashed potatoes to mop up all the sauce and green beans drizzled in olive oil. You could also serve it with Italian roast potatoes, Parmesan Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli, Sauteed Broccolini with Pesto or Creamy Polenta (Italian Cornmeal). Check out all of our delicious Italian side dishes for more inspo!
Absolutely, veal can be expensive or hard to find in some places so you can use chicken or pork instead just make sure they are similar thickness.
You can skip the flour but your sauce won’t thicken much or have as rich of a texture.
Leftovers will keep well in the fridge for up to 3 days. I recommend adding a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce as you heat it up then add the veal to warm up.
Yes, you can freeze veal marsala in suitable container or bags then defrost completely before reheating.
More delicious dinner recipes to try
- Chicken Piccata with Capers and Lemon
- Veal Saltimbocca with Prosciutto and Sage
- Ossobuco Milanese (Braised Veal Shanks)
- Steak Pizzaiola – (Carne alla Pizzaiola)
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Veal Marsala
Ingredients
- 8 veal cutlets
- ¼ cup flour, for dredging
- 2 tbsp butter, 30g
- 2.5 cups Crimini mushrooms , sliced (170g) aka chestnut mushrooms UK
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1.5 cups chicken stock, low sodium (375ml)
- ½ cup Marsala wine, 125ml
- 1-2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Season the veal with salt and pepper and slightly press it in so it sticks. Sprinkle the flour on a plate and dredge each piece of veal in the flour until lightly coated, shake off any excess.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or frying pan and fry the veal for 1 minute on each side until browned and cooked through, you’ll need to do this in batches and add more oil as needed. Remove from the pan and set aside on a plate.
- Add the butter to the pan, once melted add the mushrooms and sprinkle with a little salt. Fry the mushrooms for around 5-7 minutes until the excess moisture has been released and they start to cook down.
- Add the garlic and fry for 1 more minute. Add the marsala and let it simmer until the liquid has reduced by half. Add 1.5 cups (375ml) of chicken stock.
- Simmer the sauce for 5-7 minutes until it starts to thicken. Add the veal back into the pan to warm through.
- Serve the veal with a sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley.
Video
Helpful Info for All Recipes
- I always use extra virgin olive oil in all of my recipes unless stated otherwise
- When I use canned or jarred tomatoes of any kind I always use Cirio or Mutti brands for the best results and flavour.
- All vegetables are medium sized unless stated otherwise
- All recipes are tested and developed using a fan (convection) oven
- Find out more about how nutrition is calculated.
- Check out our must have Italian Pantry Staples.
- You can also find all our Essential Kitchen Tools for Italian Cooking.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I would love to try this but when looking at Marsala wine there are two kinds, sweet and dry and I could not tell by the label which is which. Can you help with that. Thanks.
Looking forward to trying this, have beautiful thin sliced veal waiting in my freezer.
Hi Helen, we use sweet marsala but dry will also work, enjoy!
A lovely recipe, clear instructions, delicious results!
What a delicious recipe! I made it just like the recipe, except I thickened the sauce with a little extra flour. Veal cooks so quickly and this recipe was so easy. But it really impressed my dinner guests! It’s a keeper and I’ll make it again!!
Bought some veal scallopini that was on sale at my local market. Was thinkig about Veal Parmesan but saw this recipe and so glad I did! Prepared exactly as directed except I did reduce the last step longer and had the perfect sauce. Made homemade spaetzle to accompany! Thank you for this very easy delicious recipe!!
So happy you enjoyed it, Mary, I love that you served it with spaetzle that sounds so good!
Hi, I am hopeless in the kitchen however I follow the directions to a tea and then it happens…….the sauce was not thick at all. Did anyone else have that issue and if so how do you fix it?
Thank you for your time!
Hi Nunzie, the flour from the veal should help the sauce thicken slightly (it’s not meant to be really thick). If you turn up the heat and let it reduce a few minutes longer it should thicken otherwise you can add a small amount of cornstarch (cornflour) mixed with water to the sauce for the consistency you’re after. Hope this helps!
Tried this recipe for the first time and it is very good. I served it over mashed cauliflower to cut the calories of potatoes. The Marsala sauce and chicken stocked worked well, but I did not have a sauce that as thick as I thought it would. I probably did not use a lot of flour on the veal, but nonetheless, the sauce was good and it worked quite well over the mashed cauliflower. I enjoyed this dish, I used baby Bella mushrooms because two stores did not have crimini in stock. Was not a big deal! Thank you for this delicious, easy recipe.
Just Yum! I make this every fortnight now. Family love it!
That’s so nice to hear, thank you so much for the review! 🙂
The Veal Marsala was wonderful and alot less work than I thought it would be. I will defintely try it again – maybe with thin chicken slices.
loved this recipe! cooked first bath of veal with flour & 2nd batch without & liked the 2nd batch better! otherwise, kept everything the same! quick, easy & delicious! thank you