You’ve already touched on the individual ingredients for Pork Saltimbocca, but now let’s get into some in-depth profiling. First off, why—aside from the lightness issue—did you go with pork instead of veal?

Well, one, veal is such a difficult product to maintain correctly. You have to be cautious about how you prepare it. If you’re breaking down a leg of veal or a top round, you have to make sure you’re cutting it properly and butchering it can be a little tricky. Whereas a pork medallion is very simple to execute. You trim the silver skin off it, cut it across the grain, then lay the medallion flat and pound it down to expand, thin and tenderize it. And I personally enjoy the mild flavor--which also means there are lots of directions it can travel in. You can pound pork medallions down and dredge them in olive oil and garlic then flash-grill ‘em. You can encrust a pork loin with chopped dried cherries and pistachios and oven-roast it—or you can stuff it with fruit instead. And that’s just for starters.

Okay, next question: What exactly is prosciutto?

Prosciutto—the Italian name for ham—usually refers to ham that’s been seasoned, salt-cured (which, as you know, is an ancient method for preserving meat), then air-dried. And because it’s pressed, it also has a firm dense texture. The best way to eat it is as it comes from the deli (if you cook it, you’ll toughen it). You can wrap prosciutto around a wedge of melon or figs, which is a classic appetizer. Or you can add it at the last minute to cooked foods such as pasta, or veggies, and so on. When you use it in saltimbocca, prosciutto’s cured flavor and saltiness adds a nice little taste fillip to the mild flavor of the pork—or whatever meat you use with it.

On that subject, when you season the flour for dredging the pork medallions, do you go easy on the salt because of the prosciutto’s saltiness?

A little bit. You do have to allow for the prosciutto’s saltiness, which can range from light to very marked, depending. In fact, when you’re standing at the deli counter waiting for your prosciutto to be sliced, and the deli guy asks if you’d like to try a slice, say “YES!” Then, as you taste it, make a mental note of how much you’ll have to adjust the amount of salt you’ll use on the meat, in the flour and in the sauce.

Then there’s always the dinner guest, (or customer, for that matter) who salts a dish even before tasting it!

And God bless those people! We chefs really love that!…Not to say you shouldn’t be able to shake on a little more seasoning to suit your own personal taste after you’ve sampled the dish. But, you know, I just got back from an opening in Brandon where a gentleman who’d just finished one of our meals said to me: “I didn’t have to touch the salt or the pepper all night.” And I consider that quite a compliment because it meant that I’d properly prepared every item he chose. So what I say is, when seasoning, don’t overdo or under-do— just aim for the middle of the road.

In addition to over-salting, what other pitfalls should home cooks avoid when preparing your Pork Saltimbocca?

Okay, Three Mistakes to Avoid: First, when preparing the pork medallions, remember that the grain runs from one end of the loin to the other. So with that in mind, when you’re slicing it into medallions, cut against the grain. When you’re tenderizing the medallion, pound it in the direction of the grain. Second, the prosciutto shouldn’t be too thick. It should be sliced so thin that you can read the Sunday paper through it. And third, don’t even think about substituting dried sage for fresh, because the difference between the two is like day and night. Dried sage can be overpowering. Use too much and your saltimbocca will taste like Thanksgiving-turkey stuffing (which is one place you can use dried). If you’re not used to using fresh sage, experiment with it a bit and you’ll find that its light, earthy taste goes really well, not only with pork, but with lamb, poultry, sole or salmon, vegetables like carrots, eggplant, peas—lots of things.