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ITALIAN RECIPES

Enjoy Some Recipes With Green and Red Cabbage

Tortiglioni with cabbage and sausage

Ingredients:

A spring onion, washed, roots trimmed, and sliced into rounds, green part too
A small bunch of basil
A small hot pepper, crumbled
1 1/2 cans (600 g) canned tomatoes
A small head of white cabbage, shredded; you could also use cauliflower florets
A small wedge fresh pecorino toscano (150 g, or 6 ounces); you could also use mild cheddar or Jack cheese. Do not use Pecorino Romano.
4 link sausages, about 300 g (2/3 pound), casings removed
2/5 cup olive oil
Fine grained salt and freshly ground black pepper, for seasoning
Coarse-grained kosher salt, for the pasta water
4/5 pound (about 360 g) Tortiglioni or penne

Preparation:

Set a pot of pasta water to boil.
Next, remove the casings from the sausages and put them in a non-stick skillet over a medium flame. Break them up with the back of a fork and stir the pieces about as they brown.

When the meat has browned -- you don't want to cook the sausage too much, or it will dry out -- remove it to a bowl with a slotted spoon, leaving the drippings behind.
Add the olive oil to the drippings in the pan and as soon as it is hot, the spring onion. Season with a pinch of salt and the hot pepper, and sauté until the spring onion is translucent and golden.

Add the sliced cabbage and continue to cook, stirring, until it is wilted and lightly browned, about 3-5 minutes.
Note that you can also use other winter vegetables, for example cauliflower florets, and I would add that other leafy cabbages would also be nice, for example Savoy cabbage or black leaf kale (if you discard the tougher ribs).

Stir the tomatoes into the pan, and break them up with the back of a fork or wooden spoon. Leonardo uses canned rather than fresh tomatoes because the canned tomatoes are quite moist -- they are, after all, packed in juice -- and thus provide the moisture the cabbage needs to simmer in.

When the sauce comes back to a boil, it will need to cook for 15 minutes. Therefore check the cooking time of your pasta, and calculate when you will need to begin cooking it. If your tortiglioni have a cooking time of 10 minutes, simmer the cabbage mixture for 5 minutes before salting the boiling pasta water and adding the pasta to it.

With the pasta cooking and the cabbage simmering, it's time to see to the pecorino. Trim the rind and dice the wedge into quarter inch (1/2 cm) dice.
Used a mild pecorino. If you cannot find pecorino toscano, you could use a scamorza, or -- looking beyond Italy -- a mild cheddar, or a moderately aged Jack cheese.
Do not use pecorino romano, because it will be much too salty.

Coarsely shred the basil and stir it into the sauce, followed by the sausages.
The sauce will have thickened considerably by this point, and the pasta should be just about done. Stir a few tablespoons of pasta water into the sauce.
Drain the pasta when it is still al dente, and turn it into the sauce. Turn the heat to high, and stir briskly to combine the pasta and the sauce.

Mix in the cheese, and as soon as it begins to soften -- you don't want it to melt and really string out -- remove the pan from the fire. Dust with a grind or two of black pepper -- added at this point it contributes aroma to complement the zing of the hot pepper -- and you're done!

Serve with crusty bread, with which to mop up the drippings, and a rosé, perhaps a Salice Salentino or a Castel Del Monte. Or, if you want a red, a Rosso di Montepulciano

Stewed Cabbage With Apples

Ingredients:

A fairly large head of red cabbage, quartered, cored, and shredded
Red wine vinegar
1/4 cup lard or goose fat (you could also use olive oil or unsalted butter if you'd rather)
A medium onion, peeled and chopped
4 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Put the sliced cabbage in a bowl, season it with salt and pepper, and sprinkle it liberally with vinegar. Let it rest for at least a half hour.
When the cabbage has finished marinating, heat the fat you choose to use in a pot and sauté the onion until golden.

Add the cabbage, mix well, cover the pot, and simmer gently for about an hour, stirring occasionally and adding a little liquid if the cabbage looks to be drying out.
Uncover the pot and add the sliced apples. Sprinkle the sugar over the pot, mix well, and cook another 10 minutes or so. Serve hot.
Yield: 4-6 servings Cabbage with Apples
Serves 6.

Cabbage Sardinian Style

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds (1.2 k) cappuccio cabbage (the plain green kind)
5 ounces (100 g) minced cured lard or panceta
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced parsley
A bay leaf (to be fished out and discarded)
Broth, if need be (from bouillon will be fine)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Thinly slice the cabbage.
Sauté the minced lard, garlic, bay leaf, and parsley in the oil in a large pot; when the meat has begun to brown and the fat has rendered somewhat, remove and discard the bay leaf, and add the cabbage.

Sprinkle a ladle of broth or water over the cabbage, check seasoning, and simmer everything over a gentle flame, covered, until the cabbage is tender.
As it cooks, check on it occasionally, and add more liquid if it is drying out.
Serve steaming hot.

Cabbage Salad

Ingredients:

A medium cabbage, cored and shredded
A thick slice of lean pancetta, diced, browned in a skillet until crisp, and drained
Red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Combine the cabbage and the crisped pancetta in a bowl, mix well, and season to taste with salt, pepper, and a dash of vinegar.
Serves 4.

Buon appetito!

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