Tofu Milanese 

Funny, I'm making almost this same recipe for dinner tonight, with a few modifications. In order to keep it as healthy as possible, I bread the tofu with almond flour instead of wheat flour. Also, though I love fried cutlets, standing over the stove is laborious, so I bake them in the oven at 400, 20 minutes a side. I put olive oil on the baking tray so they get crispy.

"When oil is wavy" is a good description for olive oil, but be careful to keep it there -- you may need to turn down the flame to keep olive oil from smoking/burning. "Medium high" is too high for olive oil on many stoves (including mine). Frying in olive oil take a bit more attention than high-heat oils such as canola, because is can taste burned very quickly. Sometimes I will fry with canola and THEN drizzle with olive oil to get that flavor with less fuss or risk (while multitasking).

Nami from Just One Cookbook uses a great technique: She mixes panko with some oil and toasts them in a pan on the stove. Then she breads the cutlets as you would (flour, egg, breadcrumbs), then bakes them on a rack, which has been placed on a baking sheet. It works really great with pressed tofu. Another JOC tip: she mixes a half teaspoon of oil into the egg - it makes the egg stick better to the meat / tofu. Google Just One Cookbook Katsu Sando

I'll never understood how 1 cup (=8oz.) of my olive oil @ $18 per .lb is not wasteful. Get some org. canola oil, (it's neutral in taste), you can drizzle the killer EVOO on the plated tofu, before serving. Broccoli Rabe: make sure the stems are split or very thin to cook as in the recipe. _ for thicker stems: cut off florets and blanch stems only in boiling water, 60 seconds, plunge into ice bath 60 seconds, spin dry in salad spinner, toss into med hot pan - as in recipe, perfect al dente.

I’d press the block of tofu under a weighted plate to get more water out. A bag of beans or a large can is plenty. Give it 10 min. The result is noticeably chewier and less fragile. A step further is to freeze it. The ice accretes and makes bigger holes, then more water comes out after thawing and pressing. Fry it with just cornstarch to dry the surface. Maybe that’s not Milanese anymore, but wherever it’s gone it’s fabulous.

Could the tofu be baked in the oven?

I always enjoy that almost all the comments on NY Times Cooking recipes are not about praising the recipe but rather how the clever, brilliant commenters make something similar...........but much better, or how flawed the recipe is and how it really SHOULD be made

I use a tempura mix and a little bit of potato starch. No egg, just water. No eggy flavor.

Firm tofu should not break if you handle it carefully, especially if you pressed it first. This will definitely work in an air fryer, 15 minutes at 400 would do it in mine but air fryers differ. That eliminates the whole "should you fry in olive oil" discussion going on in the other comments.

Tofu can certainly be baked and, here, I think I might try spraying it with an olive oil spray and baking it at 400 for half an hour or so,

Air frying makes it crispier with no oil waste. Spray a light coating of neutral over the cutlets after coating them with breadcrumbs. I like PAM instead of olive oil sprays for a neutral taste. No greasy residue, lots of crunch and easy to clean up.

Yes this can be baked in the oven. Or even easier in an air fryer. I no longer pan fry tofu.

I think 500 might burn the bread crumbs before the tofu is fully cooked, I would do 400 or 425.

Rafael: agree with your thoughts about cooking with Olive Oil, as I’ve burned some things on medium heat, and I only took my eyes off the pan for a few minutes. Grape seed oil (more of a neutral flavor) can be used with higher heat. From wikipedia: “… moderately high smoke point of approximately 216 °C (421 °F)”.

I would offer, a much hotter oven like 500 as tofu is basically water logged and will steam inside-out at a lower temp, instead of roast outside-in. maybe.....