I'm gonna make stuffed cabbage.
(note swooshes)
If you are making stuffed cabbage,
whether you're doing a whole stuffed chou farci,
or you're doing rolls,
which is what we're gonna do today,
you never have to put a giant pot of water onto boil
ever again.
(hands clap)
This works.
I did it,
I can prove it,
I'm gonna show you.
All you have to do,
is freeze the cabbage!
The whole head!
I just threw it in the freezer.
That's it!
You let it freeze completely through,
so at least a day.
Then you take it out.
I left it on the counter overnight.
So underneath these little cloths on the counter,
are the giant leaves we're going to stuff.
This will yield about 16 rolls,
what we've done here with just the large leaves.
And a pound and a half of beef
and half a pound of pork,
is what we have in the bowl,
with salt and pepper.
(bowl clunks)
Into our bowl,
we're going to add,
for the filling,
fresh sage,
about two tablespoons.
Or,
you can use dried sage,
in which case I would use two teaspoons.
I'm gonna use a couple teaspoons of fennel,
ground fennel or fennel pollen.
If you like a little bit of heat,
you can add about one teaspoon of ground red pepper,
which is what this is,
or red pepper flake,
which everyone has, right?
About two teaspoons each of granulated garlic
(bracelets clink)
and granulated onion.
One ounce each of Pecorino and Parmigiano,
about a cup and a half total,
or you can use all Parm or all Pecorino.
One, of course, is sheep's milk,
one is cow's milk.
Into the bowl she goes.
Three quarters of a cup of white rice,
that I covered with half a cup each of beef stock
and white wine.
And then I let it sit
for 30 minutes or more,
until you're ready to use it, right?
Until you're ready to cook.
And look how it bloats.
It bloats up with all that flavor
and this is our binder.
This is raw rice, to be clear.
Raw rice.
Then we're going to add one
(egg knocks twice)
egg,
crack it into a dish,
just to make sure you don't drop shell.
(fork clicks)
(bowl clunks)
And then a good, fat drizzle of olive oil.
Take your rings off
and get in there.
Now what's great about this dish,
is that I started it
in just the giant cast iron skillet.
I didn't have to use a pot for the cabbage.
I'm mixing this in a bowl.
This is a one-pan dinner.
We're gonna put this into a 375 oven
for an hour to 75 minutes,
until the rice is nice and tender in your rolls.
The sauce, I had to make ahead
because it has to be cool,
because we're gonna put and nest the rolls into it.
So the pan had to be cool.
This is nothing,
it's so simple.
It's just a small onion
in a little bit of olive oil and butter.
When the onion is soft,
I add a bit of garlic.
I add some beef stock and any kind of tomato you want.
I used a combination of one small can of cherry tomatoes
and two cups of tomato passata,
which is like tomato sauce.
So you just bring that sauce to a simmer,
let it come together a bit,
turn it off.
When it's cool,
you can roll your cabbage.
You center it.
I cut out the large vein
with my pairing knife,
when I defrosted instead of boiled my cabbage,
and then you just tuck and roll.
And now I'm gonna do that 16 times.
(note swooshes)
I took a little bit of sauce out,
about a cup and a half to two cups.
So I'm gonna take the last two rolls
and we're gonna nest those into the center.
And we turn this almost into
a giant winter sunburst or something.
Giant winter flower.
Gorgeous.
And now we're going
to spoon over or just drizzle around,
the remaining sauce,
so we have a little on top, too.
And we put this in the oven,
for, as I said,
60 to 75 minutes.
And just check on it every once in a while.
If it looks like it's getting a little dry on you,
pour a touch of stock or water over the top.
(note swooshes)
This is our incredible
(plastic scrapes)
easiest ever,
baked skillet cabbage.
All I'm gonna do is chop up a little parsley for the top.
Oh, God.
They're just so beautiful.
(musical note swooshes)