Roasted red cabbage: trust me on this one

I like this recipe so much that I am sure you will like it too. In fact, if you don't like it, I will personally reimburse you. The secret is that there's not much to lose here, except my reputation. A head of cabbage, even an organic one from a farmer's market, costs around $1, and I am serious that I will mail you a $1 check if you try this and don't like it. The one I bought last week here in Italy cost $0.68 euro cents. So I am calling all cabbage haters to the challenge. Paul used to be one of them. He would even pick out the thin slices of red cabbage from salads, but will now happily eat a bowl of this roasted version and likes it so much that he wanted me to post the recipe on the blog.

Cabbage doesn't seem to get much credit. It is used so universally throughout the world, so maybe it has been taken for granted. It's time to give it another look. I got the idea for roasting red cabbage from Kami, my friend and former coworker at USC, who would bring containers of the stuff to work and we would eat it like potato chips. But this recipe isn't just for crazy obesity researchers. In addition to being full of vitamins and fiber, it tastes great, makes a colorful addition to a plate, is inexpensive, and is very simple to make with just 3 ingredients.

So there is really no excuse. Buy a cabbage and try it. And don't forget to tell me what you think.

Ingredients:

1 head of red cabbage

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper (optional)

1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. A toaster oven that has a roasting pan works too.

2) Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage and rinse if necessary. Make sure to dry it very well as it will be soggy if you roast it while wet.

3) Cut the cabbage in half, slicing through the core.

4) Using a paring knive, remove the core from each half.

5) Lay the flat side of each half on the cutting board and slice the cabbage crosswise into ribbons about 1/2 inch thick.

6) Generously drizzle olive oil on a roasting pan and add the sliced cabbage. Toss it around a bit to distribute the oil and then roughly spread it into a thick layer. It is okay if pieces overlap. But do not pile it too high or else the cabbage will steam instead of roast. I made it here in Italy in our toaster oven so was only able to use half of a small cabbage at once. At home in LA I can fit a whole small to medium cabbage on a sheet pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

7) Roast for about 25 minutes, checking and tossing every 5 minutes or so to prevent burning. Here's what it should look like when it is done. Some parts will remain a bit crunchy and others will be crispy.

8) Serve either in a bowl by itself or as a colorful side dish. Other vegetables like zucchinni and carrots can be roasted in the same way and served with the cabbage too.

Buon appetito!

No Paul, No Pasta

It’s Emily here, coming out of a week without Paul and without pasta. Paul was in Spain and I went on strike. To be honest I was getting a little tired of pasta and also didn’t feel like cooking much in general. Another heat wave came around and it was nearly 100 degrees in our apartment. So raising the temperature even more in the kitchen and sitting down, sweating, to a meal by myself didn’t seem appealing. At the beginning of the week, my friend Lisa came over for dinner, however, so I decided I would cook for us for that night and for me for the next several days in one shot. I made a whole bunch of vegetables and salads that would be good cold, and I liked them so much that I think I will start doing this more often.

It is so great to have this big of a variety of vegetables on one plate. Also it is amazing to have a big salad bar waiting in the fridge for you. Though this week I made mostly cooked vegetables, I am thinking of doing this next with more raw vegetables. Looking at the photo below, clockwise from the top are: garbanzos with lemon and shallot, chicory with chilies, roasted carrots with ginger and mint, borlotti beans with tuna and tomato, roasted zucchini, and roasted red cabbage. In the center of the plate is farro with pine nuts.

My favorites were the cabbage, the carrots, and the borlotti beans. I bought the beans fresh and think they are so beautiful. It is hard not to like them based on their looks alone.

But what is so great about them other than their color is that they are more tender than dried beans. The texture turns out creamy and more uniform and less mushy than when you cook them from dried. If you can find fresh shell beans at the market, I would highly recommend trying them. Just take them out of their pods, simmer them in water with a bay leaf , a clove or two of garlic, and a sprig or two of fresh herbs like sage or rosemary. Add salt when they are nearly done, and then drizzle with olive oil when you serve them. They are great by themselves warm, or cold in a salad like the one I made with Italian style tuna packed in olive oil, tomatoes, red onion, and parsley.

For the carrots, just slice them on a diagonal along with some red onion or shallot, put them in a roasting pan, toss with dried cumin, chopped fresh ginger, olive oil, and salt. Roast them at 400 degrees, tossing every 10 minutes or so. Once they are browned, which should take about 25-30 minutes, put them on a serving plate and add chopped fresh mint.

Finally, the roasted red cabbage is something that is so simple and very addictive. It is almost like a healthier version of potato chips. I will post the recipe separately because I think it deserves its own entry.

Let me know if you have favorite vegetable recipes that I can add to this mix, or if you would like recipes for any of the other ones I made here. It’s great to have Paul back, and I could go for some pasta now, especially if Paul makes it. But he came home saying he wants vegetables. As you can tell we missed each other!