Scaloppina

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of Italian dish featuring thinly sliced meat, often cooked in a sautéed style with various sauces or ingredients
2. A culinary preparation that typically involves pounding meat flat, then lightly frying it with a flavorful sauce
3. A dish characterized by tender meat cutlets that are pan-fried and served in a sauce, often associated with Italian cuisine

Etymology: Scaloppina is Italian, a diminutive of "scaloppa," a thin slice of meat, and the root meaning is more specific than the dish suggests. The base word is most likely related to "scalpo" or "scalpare," which in older Italian carried the sense of cutting or shaping by scraping or shaving. The idea was of a thin, shaved-down piece, and the "-ina" ending simply makes it smaller still, so a scaloppina is literally a little thinly cut slice. The earlier Italian word "scaloppa" is less well documented, and its exact derivation is uncertain. What is clear is that the word belongs to the vocabulary of Italian cookery and entered English only in the twentieth century, when Italian restaurant menus spread abroad. Its meaning in English stayed close to the Italian: a thin cutlet, usually of veal, beaten flat and quickly sautéed, then finished in a pan sauce.