30 January 2016

Cabbage in white wine

This recipe called Verza in Umido stems from ITALY The Beautiful Cookbook. I have been preparing it a lot since I started to order a weekly assortment of organic vegetables, because there have been lots of cabbages supplied. The recipe is meant for savoy cabbage (green with curly leaves), but works for other types of white and green cabbages.

Serves 4-6

1 cabbage
100 g pancetta or bacon, cut in small pieces
1 tbsp butter
1/8 - 1/4 l dry white wine
salt and pepper
1 tbsp aceto balsamico

Cut the cabbage in thin pieces and wash it.
Put the butter in a big pan and bake the bacon until golden brown.
Add the cabbage and some pepper, close the lid and let the cabbage cook for about 30 min on medium heat until all the juice has gone.
Add wine, aceto and salt and let it cook for another 20 min.
Serve hot.

Roasted parsnips and sweet potatoes with caper vinaigrette

A recipe from a magazine, which came in handy because I had parsnips, sweet potato and red onion lying about, from the weekly bag of organic groceries I order at Citeco and coming from La Ferme Nos Pilifs.

Serves 4

4 parsnips
4 red onions
olive oil
2 rosemary sprigs
1 head garlic, halved horizontally
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp small capers (roughly chopped if large)
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tbsp mustard
salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Peel the parsnips and cut them in peaces of about 5 cm long and 1 cm wide.
Peel the onions and cut each into six wedges.
Place them in an oven dish and add olive oil, rosemary, garlic, 1 tsp of salt and some pepper.
Mix well and roast for 30-40 min.
Peel and cut the sweet potatoes in half and then in wedges. Add them to the tin and stir well.
Roast for a further 30-40 min.
Meanwhile, wisk together the mustard, lemon juice, maple syrup, 1/2 tsp salt and some more olive oil. Stir in the capers.
Pour the dressing over the roasted vegetables as soon as you take them out of the oven.

Note
The original recipe also adds thyme and cherry tomatoes (for the last 10 min.) and suggests to sprinkle toasted sesame seeds over the dish when cooked.
Even without the dressing, this colourful dish tastes delicious.