Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Polenta

Beautiful Savoy cabbage freshly blanched

@FoodNetwork #FNMag  As was mentioned in a previous post, this past Saturday we passed the day with three bottles of wine and quality time together.  We did neglect to mention the adventurous meal we made.  We started prepping somewhere between our second and third bottle of wine, but we were committed to preparing this intriguing recipe from the November issue of Food Network Magazine, Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Tomato Sauce.  This is certainly not a weeknight 'go to meal' but if you want to explore something less than traditional and have the time to commit, we would certainly recommend it.

Very simply, these are nothing more than a very flavorful (and homemade) sausage wrapped in Savoy cabbage and steamed to perfection.  They are topped with a simple semi-homemade tomato sauce.  Made with a blend of fresh herbs, Cognac, meats, and cheese, this sausage is not be understated. 

Rolling the sausage

We were, admittedly, a bit apprehensive with the next step -- wrapping these little gems of meat into blanched Savoy cabbage and rolling them tightly like you would a burrito.  Surprisingly, though, it was quite simple and all rolled without incident.  TIP: Buy fairly large heads of Savoy cabbage -- smaller leaves just do not work as well.  We actually bought three heads of Savoy so that we could experiment.  To finish off the cabbage rolls, they are steamed for 45 minutes in a steamer insert.  This not only softens the Savoy, but also keeps the sausage incredibly moist and melds all the flavors. 

As mentioned earlier, the accompanying tomato sauce is pretty simple and is 'kicked up' with 3 tablespoons of Cognac (though we can't say we could really taste it when all was said and done, but perhaps our palate was not perfectly attuned at that point in the day either).

They are all ready to be wrapped in Savoy!

We also prepared the Two Cheese Polenta that you can see in the final product photo below.  This dish is a perfect accompaniment to this recipe and made completely from scratch -- a first for us.  We did miss one ingredient at the store which is called for in the recipe -- fontina.  We used some smoked Gruyere we had left over from another meal. What a great substitute!  The smokey rich flavor of the Gruyere really brought this whole dish together. 

The recipe indicates 2+ hours of total time, but we might suggest setting aside at least 3 hours. Preparing this fun, new dinner on a cold winter night was a great ending to a great day "in."


Beautifully wrapped cabbage rolls -- not bad, huh?!

And...at long last...the finished product served on homemade Polenta.  Lots of pretty colors!!