Recipe: Italian cabbage rolls

Cabbage rolls filled with minced meat are a classic recipe in Dutch cuisine. In Italy they do things slightly differently. The filling here consists of (Italian) ham and cheese. The following recipe from cabbage rolls (savoy cabbage rolls) is taken from the unsurpassed culinary site Saffron Yellow with a few changes on my part so it's not a complete steal.

The preparation is simple, but pay attention to the quality of the ingredients, which, as almost always in Italian cuisine, can make the difference between top or flop.

• Therefore, do not use sandwiches, but heavy (old) bread with little air.
• For the ham, don't use those pumped up slices that contain so much brine and water that it would make even a water geus seasick, but buy a thick strip of traditionally produced cooked ham. (I use it myself prosciutto cotto San Giovanni.)
• For the cheese, the recipe prescribes the provolone (hang up) or the young round scamorza before, but a variation on it with a bit more flavor is the smoked provola, the smoked version.

Ingredients for the Italian cabbage rolls

Appetizer for 4 persons

• 8 leaves of savoy cabbage
• 100 gr. cooked ham
• 100 gr. provola or scamorza
• 80 gr. old bread
• 6-8 tablespoons grated Parmesan
• A few cloves of finely chopped garlic and/or chives
• Salt, black pepper and extra virgin olive oil qb (as needed: as needed)

Preparation of the Italian cabbage rolls

1. Remove the outer dark green leaves from the cabbage. Peel off 8 leaves, place them in lightly salted boiling water and boil for 10 minutes. (Or a little less if the leaves soften quickly.) Rinse under cold water and drain.
2. Cut the ham into strips, the cheese into cubes of just under a cubic centimeter and mix with pieces of bread, Parmesan (leave a little), garlic and/or chives, pepper and a dash of oil. (DO NOT add milk or water.)
3. Remove the hard part (the stem) from the cabbage leaves, place a spoonful of filling on either side, and roll the leaf so that it fits well around the filling.
4. Place the rolls close together on an oven dish greased with olive oil, pour a dash of oil over them and sprinkle the remaining parmesan across.
5. Place the dish in an oven preheated to 20 degrees for 30-200 minutes, until the Parmesan becomes crispy.

Tip: If some of the filling remains, you can fry it with a little oil, and if desired with chopped parsley, into a tasty kind of savory crêpes.

Tip: you can use the remaining part of the cabbage collect affogata (drowned cabbage) to make:

1. Cut the cabbage into strips. Cover the bottom of a pan (casserolle) with finely chopped fatty bacon. How much depends on the amount of cabbage, but count on 50 gr. on half a kilo. If you want to keep it lighter, olive oil works too.
2. Gently fry 2 crushed garlic cloves and the needles of a sprig of rosemary in this.
3. Then add the chopped and washed cabbage, put the lid on the pan and let it cook on low for half an hour.
4. Then turn the gas on high and throw in a glass of dry white wine. Let the alcohol evaporate and cook gently for another half hour, stirring occasionally. (In the original recipe from the renowned magazine The Italian kitchen twice as long cooking times are indicated, but that is really not necessary.)