Is it caponata? NO. Is it ratatouille? NO. What is it then? Let's call it a good vegetable dish

Ragazzi, Annalena does not think of herself as a stickler for terminology, although maybe she is.  she does like to know what to expect when she's eating, or reading a recipe.  You know this drill, Annalena has written of it before:  if the recipe says "florentine," there is going to be spinach. WHY?  No one knows.  If it says  "au gratin," there's cheese. And it goes on:  if it says "Chinese style," (oh, what a horrible description), there's soy sauce in it.  You know the type of recipes.

But there ARE specific foods which have specific names.  Ratatouille, for example, means eggplant, squash, and tomatoes to Annalena.  PERIOD.  Caponata means eggplant,  capers, tomatoes,  and sweet and sour.  PERIOD.  Yes, there are other things that could be added, but this is it.  "Cacio e pepe," that wonderful simple yet complex  Italian dish, is fresh ground pepper, and (because no one can find true "cacio" anymore), parmesan.  Nothing else. NO, no butter.  NO, not a mixture of pecorino and parmesan.  NO NO NO.

So, this recipe - which is ridiculously simple and wonderfully rewarding,  was advertised as "caponata ratatouille."

HUH????   Now that is a new one on Annalena.    She had no idea what it meant.  In reading through the recipe, it appears that the author, because of the presence of eggplant/tomatoes and zucchini, (in the original recipe), couldn't make up his mind as to what to call it; however, there is no basil in it (always there in ratatouille), and  there are no capers in it (always there in caponata),  so he just made up a name.

Bad, bad bad.  So we are not going to call it either one , ragazzi, we are just going to call it good, and easy.  And now, we're going to make it. And wait until you see the liberties you have with this one.

First, ANNALENA's ingredients:

She writes "Annalena's ingredients," because these are not exactly what the recipe called for.  Indeed, the recipe called for larger tomatoes, so you could cut them in half, and for summer squash, which Annalena did not have.  She did have a small "honey nut" winter squash (about 1/4 the size of butternut squash), and she had "heirloom cherry" tomatoes, which included 2 large tomatoes and a bunch of small ones.  

Look at those ingredients.  You see fennel, yes?  And red peppers.  and chickpeas.  None of these are seen in either ratouille or caponata.  Peppers are seen in Turkish dishes with eggplant, but  Annalena is unaware of the use of fennel or of chickpeas in any of these dishes.  

NO MATTER CARISSIMI.  Let's make this simple dish.  The quantities are flexible:  a pound of eggplant (Annalena used more), two red peppers, an onion,  two medium sized bulbs of fennel, a pound of tomatoes, a pound of zucchini (Annalena used her winter squash), and five cloves of garlic. You should peel the garlic, but you don't have to, as Annalena will explain beow.  

You also see a couple of cups of cooked chickpeas on the side.  If you must, use canned, but do put these in.  

In the original recipe, there was call for peeling small Japanese eggplants. 

As Annalena's former assistant would say  "Get Bent."   If you peel Japanese eggplants, especially small ones,  as with Oakland  "when you get there there's no there there."      Annalena sees no need for doing this.    Do cut large tomatoes up, but don't feel required to do so with small ones.  And if you don't have fresh, drain the juice of a can of plum tomatoes (28 ounces, 32 ounces, WOTEVER), and use these.  

So, preheat  your oven, to 425, while you're cutting all these guys up:

Toss them on a baking sheet with olive oil, and salt, and put them in the oven. Go away for 45 minutes to an hour .  Hold off on the chickpeas.  If you are so inclined, stir them once or twice. 

With this many vegetables, you are not going to get browning, and that's ok.  This is not a dish caling for browning. 

After the baking, dump the vegetables in a bowl, and stir in the chickpeas:

Now we have some fun: WE PICK THE ACCESSORIES.  First,  taste this to see if it needs salt, and add it if it does.  You can finish here and now, but.... Annalena suggests you add some red wine vinegar.  And after that, some honey.  If you do not have honey, use sugar, but BUY SOME HONEY!!!!    And taste again.  If you have them, add some golden raisins.  Annalena did.  If you want to, add some green olives. Annalena did not.  And if you want, squeeze the garlic out of the skin if you were too lazy to peel them. Annalena was, so she did. 

It will be wonderful.  And you're done:

Stealing the simple: roasted carrots, pomegranates, pistachios, yogurt

Annalena's army knows she has absolutely no problem with stealing a recipe if she likes it.  And that's what happened here.  She saw a picture that her bud Darren Carbone posted, and she said "Hmmm.  I can do that."  But she also said "I don't want to do it THAT way."  See, Chef Carbone used cardamom yogurt.  Now, Annalena loves cardamom, but this is a tricky spice to pull off.  Let's see a show of hands:  how many like it?  How many hate it?  How many have never heard of it?

Were you watching?  Do you see what Annalena means.  So , we'll get back to how you can play with this in a bit.

The dish also intrigued her because, well.. Annalena CANNOT get on the rainbow carrot bandwagon.  She's tried:  she's really tried.  But give her the orange ones, at least for out of hand eating. Annalena finds the other colors, especially the white and yellow ones, to lack taste. when baked or roasted, however,  the flavors all seem to develop that lovely sweetness you associate with baked fall vegetables. But the color remains.  So while they taste the same, they don't look it.  Let's get to work.

You will need the pips of a large pomegranate.  you know pomegranates, don't you?

Chances are, you've had the juice.  If you haven't had fresh ones, get with the program.  There are a million ways of getting the seeds out.  Maybe the best way is to cut the thing in half, then put each half  in a bowl of water,  one half at a time, upside down and push the seeds out.  The seeds fall to the bottom, the pulp rises, and you can skim the stuff off.  It's easier than it sounds, and just google  "how to seed a pomegranate." 

You will also need about half a cup of pistachios, for two good sized bunches of carrots.  If you like pistachios, use more.  Annalena's  were unsalted, but you can use the salted ones.    

So put your pips (and Gladys) and your nuts to the side, and turn the oven to 500.  While it's heating, trim your carrots, but don't peel them.  Not necessary.  Rub them with olive oil, and sprinkle them with salt, all of this on a baking sheet.

When the oven comes to temperature, put the  baking sheet in the oven, and roast until the carrots are "al dente."  You should be able to insert a knife into the center, but get a little resistance.  

While they're baking, let's turn to the yogurt element.  Fat free Greek yogurt is all the rage these days.  Annalena suggests you use full fat here.  You're sharing the dish with people, so who cares? 

Now, let's turn to the flavorings.  Think about what else you're eating.  What sounds good: TO YOU? You're the chef, so be bold.  Think about what you like and what you have.  Annalena kept on coming back to black pepper and sea salt.  She was right. You may be right with lemon peel, or something else.  Just stir it up in the yogurt, and put that down on a plate.  Then spread out the carrots.  And finally, sprinkle the reserved pips and nuts.  And there you are:

Now that did not sound like a  lot of work, did it?  It's not.  And think about how people are going to react when they have this put in front of them?

Guess you'll just have to make it and find out, huh?  

OMG ragazzi, we're coming up on post 1000. What shall we do?

Stemperata/Stimperata, it's like caponata, but not.

 

Some of you will be surprised to  read this, but Annalena possesses a sense of intellectual curiosity.  It DOES extend beyond cooking, but usually not.   And that is what  produced the dish of which you are reading. 

Annalena scans menus from favorite restaurants frequently, because she needs a life.  Last week, early in the week, she saw a reference on a restaurant menu to "stemperata."  She did not know this word, and via the miracle of google, she learned that this is a SICILIAN (not Italian) dish (this becomes important, ragazzi), that is centered around the Ragusa area.  

Annalena was there last year.  No one served her stemperata (or, as her gal pal Niki, the Sicilian comet) gently corrected her  "STIMPERATA"  (it IS Sicilian:  we go with what the Sicilians say).  

PROBABLY,  Annalena never saw this because she ate in restaurants in Sicily.  As she has written before, Annalena learned that Sicilian cuisine has very much developed into a homestyle cuisine: you cook and eat this at home, and a restaurant cusine:  you eat this in a restaurant.  Why would you eat, in a restaurant, what you would cook and eat at home? 

Sicilians are not the only ones who follow this rule, ragazzi, so keep it in mind when you're travelling:  if there is a dish that your relatives or friends made for you, and you're in the place of origin, you may not find it. 

So, Annalena began reading about "stImperata."  The Sicilian comet advised Annalena that, while you almost always see it with swordfish and chicken today (Annalena would add:  sausage), originally, it was made with rabbit. 

Now, Annalena loves rabbit, and this recipe does use rabbit.  If you want to make it, but bunny gives you the skeeves, use chicken.  

What Annalena also learned, is that like cassoulet, or caponata, or any dishes that are "classics," there is very little agreement on a canonical recipe.  Annalena SWEARS she read over 200 of them, both in Italian and English (good practice for those of you studying languages other than your native tongue by the way), and eventually said  "OK, andiamo  nella cucina e cucinamo"    And so she did.  And this is her version, taken from a pastiche of many. 

Here are your ingredients:

Some of these ingredients were in  EVERY recipe:  the green olives (although "how many" or "how much" is a point of dispute), onion,  celery,  capers, red wine vinegar, raisins.  Annalena added a few things that were in some, but not all of the recipes:  carrots, honey (instead of sugar), pine nuts and  garlic.   Finally, what you do not see, are the rabbit legs marinating in red wine.  This was an outlier, but she found it in a very respected collection of Italian recipes, and hey, if Annalena can use wine, perche non  (why not).  

So, the rabbit legs (or chicken legs), sat in a cup of wine, and a thinly sliced onion, for three hours.  At the end of that:

You don't see much change in the rabbit legs, but do you see the garnet color of the onions?  Keep that in mind as we go forward.  In fact, what the wine is doing is breaking down the protein. Wine is acidic. Acids break down proteins.  This is the same process as in ceviche, or sauerbraten, or many dishes. 

While these were marinating, Annalena prepared her other ingredients:  peel and slice two medium carrots into coins (if you're using them), cut up 3-4 stalks of celery, chop the onion, set your capers to water to remove the salt, and chop up the garlic.   Smash and pit your olives.  The quantity ranged from "15" to " a handful" to "some".  This is family cooking at its best. Annalena had 12 left.  Her hands are big.....  

There are no pictures of the prep because, really, do you want to see Annalena cutting carrots?    Well, when you've finished, and you're ready to cook, first of all, remember to separate the capers from the water. 

Rabbit is very lean, so you'll want about a third of a cup of olive oil here.  If you're using chicken, you may want to cut that back to 1/4 of a cup.  Get the oil hot, and brown whatever you're cooking.  Don't worry about cooking it through.  We'll get back to that:

The rest of this, is ridiculously easy.  Use that oil, which has picked up some of the protein flavor, and add EVERYTHING but the vinegar.  Stir those veggies up, and then, after about 3 minutes, add the meat:

Remember the vinegar?  Well, while the veggies are cooking, get 1/3 of a cup of red wine vinegar, and add about 2-3 tablespoons of sugar OR, if you're being authentic, 2 tablespoons of honey (honey is actually sweeter tasting than white sugar).  Now, if you marinated your protein in the wine, add it.  And then, pour the agrodolce (the vinegar and sweetener, over everything.  Let it cook for five minutes.  You'll get something like this, and the wine will evaporate off:

Now, cover the pot, and lower the heat.  You need to finish cooking the meat.  Rabbit is dense, so you'll need 20 minutes or so.  Chicken, less so.  If you did swordfish, you're gonna be good in 5 (and you better NOT have used red wine).  

When finished:

Ragazzi, don't judge until you try it.  Folks have eaten rabbit for thousands of years, and still do (some day, ask Annalena to tell you her Japanese rabbit story).  If you just can't get your head around it, well, Annalena is ok with you using chicken, although she thinks you should try guinea hen (her sisters know this as faraona).  DO make this. The sweet and sour flavors will remind you of caponata (and sometimes, stimperata is referred to as a relish), and you will add this to your repertoire.  Annalena guarantees it. 

For our musical treat:  while pronouncing "stimperata", Annalena kept on thinking of Linda Ronstadt singing "Desperado," so....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJN7Zy2PzQI

Going vegan: lentil and cauliflower stew, Indian style

Now, do not fret, ragazzi.  Annalena is not going vegan.  Not unless her doctor orders her to do so.  There are times when, totally by chance, or circumstances, she prepares a vegan dish, and somewhere in the middle of it she realizes "OH.  This is vegan."  In fact, she did not make this dish vegan, but she COULD have, and she will tell you how.   It is also gluten free, and more than anything else, it is GOOD, and it admits to a number of variations.

The dish itself is very easy to cook, but Annalena warns you ahead of time:  you do need to spend a bit of time preparing your ingredients.  You will probably need 15-20 minutes to prep everything, but then, you can go and meditate, or do what one does when waiting for the vegetables to meld.

So, let's begin.

What you have here are the vegetables.  In the top figure, you see a head of cauliflower, separated into its florets, and cut small.  You also see a bunch of spinach, chopped.  Here's where your first variation comes in.  If you don't have spinach, use kale.  If you don't have kale, use chard.  If you don't have chard, use broccoli rabb.  All you really need, carissimi, is some dark leafy greens.  And the quantity is up to you.  They will cook down.

And you see, in the lower right hand corner of the top photo, a bag (2 cups) of Indian black lentils.  You may not know this, but you should:  there are hundreds of varieties of lentils out there.  Go to an Indian store and ask for lentils, and see the look you get.  Annalena is no expert, but she CAN tell you that you need a variety that will not cook to a pulp.  That means you avoid the brown lentils you buy in a bag and use to make soup. They are superb for that, just not here.  If you cannot get the black lentils, get French green ones (lentils de Puy), or the Italian ones (casteullucio lentils).  Annalena knows both of those as varieties that hold their shape on cooking. 

The bottom photo shows you a pound of potatoes, cubed, and two large white onions, chopped with less than surgical precision. The potatoes Annalena had, were very thin skinned (like Annalena).  So she didn't peel them.  If you have a thickly skinned variety, do peel them before chopping.  

And to the question :  "how many potatoes are there in a pound?" (Annalena gets asked this more than you might think), you have to imagine her looking over her spectacles with a "REALLY????"  look on her face.  

And here's our second substitution possibility.  At this time of year, you will find sweet potatoes, and you will find winter squash in the market.  You should feel free to substitute either, keeping in mind that you will get a sweeter dish at the end. 

The ingredients you do not see, are a quart of stock (the original recipe calls for vegetable, but you have read Annalena's tirades against that stuff.  She used chicken.  Use what suits you), and the spices.  Annalena was using a product one of her delivery services sent her, called "Tandoori spice mix."   You can buy such product, but if you don't have such, or want to use what you have, look for your South Asian spices:  curry powder, tumeric, asafetida, etc.  If you have them, you know how to use them.  You are going to need 2 tablespoons, so if your spices have different degrees of heat associated with them, keep that in mind as you go along, as well as your audience. 

First, start your potatoes, by putting them into some cold, salted water, and bringing that to a boil.  They'll be ready when you need them.

Now, we cook.  First, two tablespoons of oil in a big pan, and the onions.  Three minutes.  Follow this with the cauliflower.  Another 3 minutes:  

 

Now, add your spices, and stir them in until you can smell them.  This will take, literally, seconds.  

Add the stock and greens:

When this comes to a boil (it won't take long), add the raw lentils:

Stir everything together, and at this point,  drain the potatoes and add them.  Lower the heat, and keep the pot uncovered.  Let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes.  How long, is up to you, and the lentils.  Test one after 20 minutes, and if they're not soft enough for you, cook them some more. 

Again, at this point, you can doodle with the recipe.  When Annalena was eating it, for example, she thought  that some raisins would be good.  You may want to add yogurt if you decide to break the vegan theme.  While this was cooking, Annalena eyed a less than ripe tomato that was going to rot before it ripened.  Since she had her potato water ready, she dropped the tomato in, peeled it, chopped it, and added it to the finished dish:

This was a really delicious, filling lunch.  You'll get about two quarts of finished stew at the end of this, and you can feel absolutely virtuous about sharing it with people.  It DOES kind of seem virtuous doesn't it?  And who among us cannot use some more virtue. 

The thought "going vegan" reminded Annalena of a song from her misspent youth.  So, ragazzi, let's end with The Who, "going mobile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAlJOIR74w

Marcella's Ventian cabbage soup

Ragazzi, if you search this blog, you will see that Annalena worships Marcella Hazan.  Her books, very much, defined Annalena's approach to cooking. So Annalena consults these collections from time to time.  In doing so this week, for a reason that reminded Annalena to tell you to do the same, she found a new recipe, using her vegetable of the moment, cabbage.

Cabbage is certainly not glamorous.  Most of us only know it from coleslaw, usually made badly, from cabbage that has been pre-cut, and treated for long term storage. 

LET'S GET AWAY FROM THAT AND USE THIS LOVELY VEGETABLE.  Educate yourself, and see how many different types there are. Try them all.  For example, the great Marcella says you could make this soup with any variety, even red cabbage.  For reasons she cannot explain, Annalena associates savoy cabbage with Venice.  As it is also Annalena's favorite type, she used it.  You may proceed accordingly, or with something else.

Now, what prompted the discovery of this recipe?  Annalena was making risibisi for dinner, and thought it high time to check the recipe again.  See, when you make a recipe over and over again, you may THINK you have it memorized, and maybe you do.  It is, however, a good thing to go back , periodically, and review a favorite recipe to see if you still recall it. Who knows?  You may find a good one. 

Ok, so let's get going.  First of all, as is the case with most Italian recipes, this is the ultimate in simplicity of ingredients.  The main ingredient, is time. 

First, you need to shred about 2 pounds of cabbage in thin shreds.  You should also chop up an onion.  Also chop up a tablespoon of garlic, and have a tablespoon of any vinegar ready.  Annalena always associates cider vinegar with cabbage:

 Now, we're going to start cooking.  This will sound like a lot, and it is, but you need it.  Put half a cup of olive oil in a big soup pot.  Add the onion.  Cook the onion at low heat until it darkens, almost to the point of being black in color:

This is a bit odd, Annalena knows, and this will take some time.  Ironically, the large amount of oil slows down the time to brown.  But you'll get there.  Now, put in the cabbage, all of it, the garlic, and the tablespoon of vinegar.  The cabbage will begin collapsing almost immediately:

This is what happened to Annalena's cabbage, in the 2 minutes she needed to grab her phone:  when she started, the cabbage was over the rim of the pot.  

Now, stir everything together, cover the pot, and put it on low, low LOW heat.  If you have a heat disperser, now is the time to use it.  Use a flame as low as you can get, without turning off the oven.  Cover the pot.  You're going to cook this for... NINETY MINUTES.    And this is what you get a fter 15:

And then an hour:

And after 90 minutes:

Those of you with cooking chops may be thinking French onion soup.  You're on the right track.  Now, you're going to add 2/3 cup of uncooked Italian rice, a quart and a half of stock, and then taste this to check for salt, which it will need.   Let this cook away for twenty minutes or so, and then taste the rice.  Is it cooked to your satisfaction?  If not, cook it some more, but keep in mind that, as the soup cools down, the rice will cook some more. 

What you get, is what we Italians call a "zuppa."

See, ragazzi, Italians distinguish between thick soups (zuppe), and ones with more liquid (ministre).  Indeed, Annalena thinks that "zuppe" should really be translated as "sop," but that's her view, not the prevailing one. 

What you will find is that you needed that vinegar, because this slow cooking brings out the sugar in the cabbage. That is all the brown stuff.  It is, literally , vegetable caramel.  

So go back through this recipe.  Yes, it took us a while to get here, but you did practically nothing, and you have two cups of inexpensive, delicious goodness.  

Annalena thinks herb focaccia here,  but you may have other thoughts.  Do think about making this though. Whatever else happens this winter, cabbage will be available.  You may be very glad to have this recipe.

Fresh, or canned? Still good: Roasted red pepper soup

Ciao, ragazzi.  Today, we are going to begin prepping ourselves for the winter, by making a soup from mostly fresh ingredients, but also by being mindful that it will be winter soon, and that is no excuse for not making a delicious meal.

Let Annalena explain:  in general, she frowns upon using canned goods, unless the good in question is one that is not available to her in good quality, or just is not available, period.  A very good example of this, is coconut milk.  Annalena CAN make coconut milk, but....  it would not be pretty. 

A better example for most of us, is canned tomatoes.  For that period of time that always seems too brief  and when fresh tomatoes that are local, smell like sun, and are reasonable in price, we must ALL use them. That window, however, is always short. So, you should have canned tomatoes on hand, ALWAYS.  You will see all kinds of reviews as to which brand is the best. Annalena says you should use what you like.  She did that here. 

What you see below you, are the ingredients for this soup:  on the far left, are four roasted red peppers.  Then a quart of stock, 1/4 cup of Italian rice, a 28 ounce can of chopped tomatoes, cinnamon (yes, cinnamon.  We won't use a lot but we will use it), and the "holy trinity" of soup making:  carrot, celery and onion. 

Annalena had a lot of beautiful fresh red peppers available to her.  If you do not, get jars of the roasted ones.  When you buy these, shop CAREFULLY.  The roasted flavor is important here, and not all jarred peppers are roasted. Most of the Italian brands are.  In fact, if you look through the glass of the jar, you may see some char marks.  Buy those.  You need four peppers for this dish, and a jar of roasted peppers rarely has more than 2.  Do the math.  And if you have more than you need, use them in the soup.

If you are fortunate enough to have fresh ones, turn your oven to the broil mark, put your peppers on a baking sheet, and get them as close to the heat source as you can, without touching it.  Adjust your oven racks if you must.  It's not hard.  After 5 minutes, check.  If the peppers have blackened, rotate them.  And so on, and so forth, until the entire pepper is black.  Carefully move them to a bowl, and now cover them, so they steam cool.  When they're cool enough to handle, the blackened skin will come right off. 

Yes, this is tedious.   But there's no work involved, and in the interim, you can get to work on your other vegetables:

What you have here is a large carrot, chopped, and two stalks of celery, also chopped. You do not see the large yellow onion, but chop one of those too, and don't worry about surgical precision. You also don't see four garlic cloves, which you will peel, and chop.  Now, add two tablespoons of olive oil to a big soup  pot, and add the onion, carrot and celery.  Cook these, for about five minutes, stirring as you go:

 Now, we're getting there!  Here's where you open up the tomatoes, and pour them in.   Add about 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon  (don't omit it, and use a small amount.  You'll notice it).  Reduce your heat to medium, and let this bubble for about ten minutes:

 Just about home, kids.  After the ten minutes, add your peppers, cut up roughly, the basil, a quart and a half of stock of some kind.  Annalena used chicken diluted with water.  Use vegetable if you like.  Taste a bit of this.  You'll want salt and pepper.  Also, if you have some fresh basil, add a couple sprigs.  And add that rice.  

Let this all cook away for twenty minutes or so, and check to see if it's "done" by tasting a rice grain to check.

Annalena almost stopped here. She didn't.  She got this recipe from Martha Rose Schulman's column, and the notes to the recipe were very clear, that pureeing it, added flavor.  Dubious of this, Annalena tried a small bowl at this point, and then afterwards.  The pureeing IS a good idea. So let the soup cool,  and then puree it in small batches:

Look at that color!  Can you stand it?  You won't taste rice grains, but you do have a nice thick soup, that is.... GLUTEN FREE.  If you used vegetable stock, it's.... VEGETARIAN..  And, it's... VEGAN.

So, there you have it.  A soup that can be made from what's fresh, or from what's in jars and cans.  What could be bad about that?  Make yourself some grilled cheese sandwiches, (unless you're a vegan), and you've got dinner.

Back soon, ragazzi, with a Venetian soup for cabbage, the vegetable of the moment in Annalena's home.

Autumn calling: we answer with a gratin of cabbage, cheese, onion and wild rice

Well, ragazzi, facts are facts.  And the facts are, the temperature is not moving out of the low 70s during the day, the nights are in the 50s, Annalena has pulled out her sweatshirts:  we are in that period that Annalena thinks of as "Sumtumn" or "Autmer," something like that.  It's sort of a cross of summer and autumn.  We say goodbye to some of the pure summer things for another year:  the vendors no longer have peaches or nectarines, the basil is nearly gone, the tomatoes "ain't what they used to be," and the annual onslaught of winter squash, cold weather greens, and:  cruciferous vegetables has begun.

Every year, Annalena and the Guyman look forward to the arrival of these colder weather vegetables, knowing full well that at some point, they are going to be thinking:  "Kale AGAIN?'  Such is the tradeback of living and eating seasonally ragazzi.

And let us be honest with each other:  many of these vegetables require a lot more love than the tomato you can just slice and put on a table with some salt, or the peach that just sits there, dripping juice.  So we take solace in the fact that the kitchen might not be as hot as it was, and get set to do some serious work.

"Serious work," however, need not be heavy work, and what after all is the point of doing this, if you're not going to enjoy the result?  Annalena turns to one of her favorites, Martha Rose Schulman, for the recipe which follows.  Yes, you will spend some time in the kitchen, but you will be pleased at the results.  And all you vegetarians will love this.  So, too, will those of you who want something a little lighter, and a little healthier.  So,  "cominciamo."

Let's start with the cabbage:  if you walk through your farmers market, you will be astounded at the varieties you can find nowadays. When Annalena was just a bambino, there were red cabbage heads (smaller), and plain white cabbage heads, the size of giant boulders.  This week at her market, there was spitzkohl, red spitzkohl, two or three kinds of white cabbage, and her favorite:  savoy.  This is the crinkly one.  You've seen it.  Cabbage does not, inherently, have much flavor,  but savoy seems to have more of it.  You are going to need a healthy 1.5 pounds of it.    In the picture below, the half on the left, is 1.5 pounds.  Keep this in mind, because you will almost never find a cabbage weighing 1.5 pounds.  Look for a second recipe (Annalena has posted them), or make coleslaw:

Next you will need 2 cups of grain, already cooked.  Ms. Schulman calls for millet.  

Do you know what millet is?  If you have ever had a pet bird, and you bought the bird a strand of seeds to nibble on, that's millet:

Annalena loves millet, but she had none in the house.  She did have wild rice, so she cooked that.  Use what you have.  Brown rice seems right with this dish, but couscous would work, too.    Keep the cooked, cooled grain to the side for now. We'll come back to it. 

Using a sharp knife, shred your cabbage.  You'll have a lot of it:

Trust Annalena:  it ain't all that.  Cabbage is filled with water and, as you will see, this will shrink

Ok, so now you need to set your oven to 375 and you also need to slice up and dice up a large onion.   You should also chop up a healthy half cup of fresh dill. (you can leave out the dill, if you don't care for it)

 Get the onion into a big pan with a tablespoon of olive oil, and cook it slowly:  about ten minutes:

While this cabbage is cooking, combine a cup of low fat cottage cheese (in this VERY rare case, ragazzi, the low fat version is better.), together with 2 large eggs.  If you happen to have a food processor, swirl it through to make it smooth.  If you are so inclined, you might want to add some lemon peel, or other flavorings here. And if you don't have cottage cheese, use ricotta, or any of the softer cheeses that are not so fat rich.  Mascarpone, for example, is not going to work.  You CAN add more flavor it you like, by adding grated parmesan, or cheddar, or something like that.  Do keep in mind that your cheese is a binder here, so that should guide your choices. 

So we have our chopped cabbage, our cooked onion, our cheese "custard," and now the fun stuff begins. 

Dump the cabbage into the pan with the onion:

Can you see how pale that cabbage is, and how it's crowding the pan?  If you wait, patiently, for about 3 minutes:

And then after about ten:

Not much there, huh?  Can you see the onions mixed with the cabbage?  Those little brown spots. 

At this point, you should taste the cabbage and use your salt and pepper.  Be generous.  Time to combine the cheese mixture, the dill, and the grains, off the heat and stir it together:

After you've stirred it together, fill up a non metallic baking dish:

This goes into the oven for 40 minutes.  The sugars in the cabbage will emerge, and so too with the sugars in the cheese.  And: 

Annalena has a fair number of vegetarian readers, and she can tell you that she would serve this to you, proudly, any day.  So, how about you do it yourself, and serve it to yourself?  It's the time to cook these things, ragazzi, so give it a try. Annalena is right there with you.