Gardein Piccata with Linguini

This is hands down the best meal Aa and I have eaten all year. Okay it's only been a month but still.  What year even is it??

I'm usually slightly embarrassed by my selective love of processed vegan food products, but let's really give it up to Gardein for making delicious and healthy meat substitutes.  My mind is blown every time.  And let's face it, I don't always have the time to make 10 pounds of seitan.  And for 4 bucks, a frozen bundle of whole chik'n cutlets from this company, lightly seasoned, and ready to go is quite tempting without the subsequent guilt.  How much would 4 chicken breasts cost?  These things I do not know.

Two things were learned by making this meal.

1. piccata is a style of preparing food, not the name of a specific dish.  It involves lightly frying something and then creating a sauce with shallots, butter, white wine, lemon, capers, and occasionally parsley. 

2. non-pareils are not only a type of tiny chocolate candy but also a description for capers.  the word itself means having no equal.  I think it refers to the highest quality of caper which is also the smallest. 

So with this newly gained knowledge, I go on.

Ingredients needed:

4 Gardein cutlets, or seitan
flour
lots of olive oil
2 shallots
3 Tb capers, rinsed
1/2 Tb of flour
salt
pepper
big splash o' white wine
juice of 1 smaller lemon
1 1/2-2 cups chicken flavored veggie broth
1 bay leaf
2 Tb of margarine
handful of chopped parsley

Dredge the cutlets in flour then lightly fry in olive oil until golden brown. 

Strain the olive oil so you can reuse it. I'm aware that this shit is expensive.  In meaty piccata, you would use the fat from the chicken to make the sauce but since fake chiks don't work that way, start over with a rinsed pan. Put on a big pot of salted water to boil.  In the meantime, with more olive oil, about 1/4 cup, saute the shallots but don't let them brown. When translucent, add the capers, then flour, salt, pepper, white wine, and lemon juice thereafter.  After a minute, add the bay leaf and veggie broth and let simmer for 5 minutes. 

Add the cutlets and the butter cut into 4 slices, and let simmer for longer until the margarine has melted and your pasta has been cooked al dente.  Right before serving, add the parsley and stir around. 

Serve over linguini.  In Italy, apparently, you would not eat this sauce with pasta.  The starch would be served as a separate course and the piccata sauce would just be served over the veal or whatnot. yuck.  When in Rome...or Massachussetts?

Aa and I got super glutinous on this one and sucked up every single drop of the sauce.  But this could reasonably feed four people if you served with bread and maybe a small salad or appetizer.  If I ever have a dinner party, this is definitely what I'm making.