Cabbage and pasta

Feb 3

If Johnny Depp were a cabbage he would be cavolo nero whilst Jude Law would be an easier, accessible, sweeter but frankly rather boring round, smooth white one." Rachel Roddy

I liked the quote which is why it heads this post and it does have some relevance to which I shall eventually come. But really the purpose of this is to prove that cabbage is not boring.

My inspiration? Well cabbage is a winter thing, so it obviously wasn't anything happening in my own life. No - it was a recipe on my New York Times desk calendar Caramelised cabbage and walnut pasta from Hetty Lui McKinnon - well it's winter in February in America. The recipe is indeed on the New York Times website but hidden behind a paid subscription access. However, it's a popular recipe and you can find it on a few other websites, including on a website called Donna's Daily Dish, which was the most interesting of them all. And just to demonstrate how we mere mortals struggle to make our cooking photogenic, above are the New York Times version and the Donna's Daily Dish version.

So what?, you might say but at the time that I started this I was intrigued by the idea of caramelised cabbage and pasta. You don't often think of cabbage in relation to pasta do you? And caramelised at that. So I set out on a journey that found me two classic dishes, and a detour into the idea of what we mean by cabbage. Hence Johnny Depp and Jude Law.

Hetty Lui McKinnon is actually Australian born and raised, the child of Chinese immigrants, spent some time in London with her husband, came back to Sydney and now lives in New York. The recipe that inspired this post is from this, her latest book Tenderheart. Her focus is vegetarian and vegan food, and I don't have any of her books. I think I may have bought one, but decided that it wasn't quite me and handed it to my daughter-in-law. Or was that Alice Zaslavsky? The book I mean.

But I digress. As one does when dealing with the internet. So back to the beginning of my journey - a Google search on cabbage pasta and The Guardian - which is always a good place to start. And, of course, up pops Ottolenghi with his version of the same recipe which he calls Cabbage and poppy seed pasta. Well it's not quitethe same because there are no walnuts. There are poppy seeds instead, and sour cream. And this is where I meander even more as I am now going to stray from my original meander and jump - to Poland. Pasta in Poland? Well yes. We all eat pasta, and of course all of Europe has been eating some kind of noodle for centuries - well perhaps not all of Europe, but certainly central and Eastern Europe.

In his introduction to the recipe, Ottolenghi mentioned that his recipe was inspired by his colleague Katja and one of her favourite childhood dishes, and later on in my ramblings I discovered that there is indeed a Polish dish called Haluski, which I explored, having found this Cabbage and walnut pasta on a website Tried & True. This particular recipe is obviously a variation on my original inspiration, but this is where I learnt of Haluski, because the writer of Tried & True was also inspired by a friend and a recipe Easy vegan haluski which she has adaapted from the traditional Polish dish which generally includes bacon or sausage. So of course I went looking and found Polish haluski (fried cabbage and noodles)/Polish Feast and Haluski (Buttery cabbage and noodles) - Ali Slagle/New York Times/University of Washington Botanic Gardens. The New York Times recipe, is of course, behind a firewall but it is published on the Botanic Gardens site - the strange places you find these things. It's a dish that is also found in other Eastern European countries and obviously there are variations. The cabbage here is buttery rather than caramelised.

But back to Ottolenghi who had come up in my Guardian search - and there was another recipe - the very Ottolenghi sounding Pizzoccheri with miso cabbage and spiced breadcrumbs and indeed it is an Ottolenghi recipe I mean miso is not an Italian thing is it?. The thing that led me elsewhere however is the Pizzocheri which are a buckwheat pasta from Northern Lombardy. Now it is highly unlikely that you will find buckwheat pasta easily, if you want to try it out, although Ottolenghi does give you a recipe for the pasta as well in the same article and you could always make it with ordinary pasta. But the pizzoccheri led me to a classic Italian dish Pizzoccheri della Valtellina. The first version I found was on a website called Delicious Days and the second was on The Pasta Project which gives you a link to the Pasta Grannies on video making the 'official' version. because Jacqui of The Pasta Project's version - Baked pizzoccheri della Valtellina from the Alps is not totally authentic, because she bakes it. Valtellina is a valley in the Italian Alps, and the town of Teglio is apparently the source of the recipe. You might think that cabbage with pasta is unusual, but this dish adds potatoes too - even more unusual. Everyone swears by the deliciousness of the dish however. Did I mention it includes a lot of cheese and butter?

Jumping back a bit I thought I would give Jamie Oliver - Italian lover that he is - a go and indeed he came up with two Savoy cabbage and pasta recipes: Savoy cabbage pasta although this one was not on his own website but one of an admirer called Jamie Oliver Eats and also Savoy cabbage and pancetta farfalle on his own website.

With Jamie however, I took another turn, to Cavolo nero - Tuscan kale as it is known here. Back to Johnny Depp:

'I’ve always liked kale – particularly cavolo nero – the robust, swarthy, bitter – sweet cousin of cabbage, the rogue cousin, the pirate of the cabbage world." Rachel Roddy

I admit I paused here, because I had begun with cabbage - pretty ordinary everyday cabbage, and here I was with the gourmet's and health fanatic's fashionable cabbage. Because of course it is a leafy green too, but different. So should I ignore? Well ultimately I didn't and mostly because of this recipe from Jamie Super green pasta which I have to say was one of the most tempting recipes of all. The link will take you to a Facebook video which like all of his videos has useful little tips here and there as he shows you quickly how to do it. Fundamentally you cook the kale with the pasta and whole garlic cloves, then liquidise the kale and garlic which makes a wonderful sauce to coat the pasta. Top with ricotta and parmesan. Dinner done in about ten minutes. Honestly why don't people cook? Although I suppose you do need some kind of liquidiser or food processor.

I'm not sure now whether it was Jamie or somebody else, but obviously those kind of greens - spinach, silver beet, kale are possible substitutes if you can't find, or can't afford Tuscan kale. This is what I found: Pasta with Tuscan cabbage pesto - Taste - a reader recipe; Pappardelle with cavolo nero and 'nduja - Nigella Lawson; Spaghetti with Braised Cavolo Nero and Ricotta - Rachel Roddy; and Spelt spaghetti with zucchini and cavolo nero-almond sauce - Maxwell Adey/Gourmet Traveller which also includes sea bass; plus a very late entry from Nigel - Orzo, black cabbage and smoked cheese

In the end, however I returned to plain and simple old cabbage and found three more options: Cabbage carbonar-ish - Hetty McKinnon/Cup of Jo; Sausage, cabbage and pasta - River Cottage which, incidentally seems to be a popular combination - again a Northern Italian and central European thing and last, but not least from the Italians themselves - Maccheroncini cabbage ragù - La Cucina Italiana. Although I found this last one a little strange, as those red things are supposed to be currants. Maybe they mean redcurrants?

It's all somewhat frustrating really, because however interesting this journey around the net with a couple of specific ingredients in mind, has been - and it sort of has been - it's not something any of us will be rushing to make right now, because it's summer here, and cabbage is really not a thing at the moment. I do have a quarter in my fridge vegetable drawer but it's looking very sad, so sad it maybe should be thrown out. I should check and maybe have a go at Hetty Mckinnon's inspirational recipe.

POSTSCRIPTS ON PEACHES AND PARTIES

Peach chutney below - it tasted pretty good and was pretty easy. I think it was a Nigel recipe.

Peach jam done - three jars have been donated elsewhere - and the rest of the peaches waiting to be turned into something else. And now I have an even larger quantity of plums to deal with - from Monika, who also donated some of her amazing plum paste. Now I just don't have the patience for that.

No picture of the party but Helen Goh's Chocolate ripple fridge cake was amazing. But oh dear, so much cream! And I didn't make the biscuits myself. Just bought a packet. Full marks also to Jamie for his Halloumi skewers, Jennifer of Savor for her Chicken spiedini Ottolenghi and crew for their griddled veggie salad and Delia for her sublime Pesto rice salad. There was very little of anything left. Thanks to my sons for labouring over the barbecue in really, really high heat.