Here’s a super easy, and rather healthy, way to eat your vegetables (new year’s resolutions much?) while refusing to give up things like pasta (my life, more or less).
My approach to pasta, 9 times out of 10, has as much to do with what vegetables I have in my fridge, rather than deciding to make a classic pasta like carbonara or amatriciana. This mostly has to do with the fact that I’m usually deciding what to cook at the last minute, and rather than make a pasta and a side dish or salad, I’m much more inclined to throw it all in one pot and call it a meal.
For Sunday lunch last week I had a beautiful head of cabbage from our vegetable garden in Umbria to work with. I don’t know about you, but when I see cabbage my mind immediately thinks ‘pork.’ And even though I was fresh out of pancetta (how did that happen?) I did have two little sausages I had bought before the holidays at the farmers market. They got whizzed in the food processor to become the basis of the ‘sauce.’
The sausage, which was beautifully seasoned already with black pepper and fennel, enriched the wilted cabbage along with a fat leek. For good measure I added extra wild fennel pollen which really made the whole thing sing.
(by the way, using chopped dried sausage as a basis for sauces and soups is a great secret weapon. Keep it in mind for the future. Much better than using icky broth cubes)
Pasta: that was leftover too, from our trip to Bari. Fresh orecchiette were perfectly chewy, but feel free to use any other short shape, like fusilli or strozzapretti.
Also: even though I used a head of green cabbage, feel free to substitute kale or any other type of sturdy green.
orecchiette with cabbage + sausage
Yield 5
*if you can't find the small salamis just use the best quality italian salami you can get. Not the industrial type.
Ingredients
- 1 head cabbage
- 1 fat leek
- 2 small italian sausages (dry, not fresh)* about 5 oz/ 150 grams
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- salt, pepper
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 tsp wild fennel pollen
- 1 cup grated aged tuscan pecorino (mild. Not pecorino romano. You can sub parmigiano)
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- 1 pnd / 1/2 kilo orecchiette
Instructions
- Slice the leek, making sure to get all the grit out.
- Pour the olive oil into a large pan big enough to hold all the pasta and cabbage later. Heat over medium heat and add the chopped sausage. Let it cooked until it starts to give up it's fat and brown a bit. This shouldn't take too long, since the sausage is already cooked. About 5 minutes or so.
- Add all the cabbage, stirring to coat with the sausage and fat. Season with salt and pepper, stir and then add 1 cup of water. Cover with a lid for the first 5 minutes so the cabbage starts to wilt. Keep stirring every so often, and finish cooking with the lid off. You don't want it to boil, but cook until nice and soft.
- Let the water boil away then add the fennel pollen and stir. Add the wine and let that bubble away. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper, but remember you are going to add cheese later, which is salty.
- In the meantime bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the pasta and cook until 3 minutes away from being done.
- Drain, reserving 2 cups of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the pan with the cabbage, stir and add a cup of the water. Finish cooking together, until the pasta is al dente. You may have to add a bit more of the water. At the very end, turn off the heat, and add the cheese, stirring to combine, and the parsley. If it seems a bit dry, you can add some more of the reserved water.
Â
Â
What is fennel pollen? Can I use the fronds?
You can certainly use the fronds of fennel, but it won’t have the same intensity. Fennel pollen is the carefully collected pollen from wild fennel. It is sold dried, and is not that difficult to find online. It really does make a huge difference in dishes like these.
I love cabbage and pasta—so this combination is delicious. The tip to process sausage in food processor is a neat trick. I will be trying this very soon.
Thank you
Jane
The essence of the Italian kitchen, brava!
This sounds yummy, but when is the leek added?
Argh! Thanks for the catch!!! I’ll add that, but it’s added after the sausage.
Until your excellent Cabbage soup a while ago, I used to use this kind of cabbage exclusively as a shredded bed for sashimi (which everyone does here). Now I have another great reason to buy a head of cabbage–.This one will be lunch tomorrow. Quick enough to make before work and take for lunch. Grazie mille,..again!
D.
I did not have fennel pollen so i ground fennel seeds in a mortar and pestle..worked and tasted just fine. Also used napa cabbage, which i think gave it a milder taste. Very nice recipe.
Glad to hear it worked out. And the ground fennel seeds was a good choice!
What a great recipe! I love the use of the ingredients on hand, with techniques that build the flavors. Delicious and cheap!
Would you be able to advise where to buy fennel pollen in Rome? If I can find it in regular supermercati or if I should find a special shop (I’ll be staying in the centre).
And you are right, cabbage pairs with pork so well 🙂 We have several dished in our Czech cuisine with these ingrediences that tastes so great 🙂
Castroni (a specialty shop with several locations) usually carries fennel pollen.