Ingredients for 8 parcels:1 Savoy cabbage (approx. 700 g)150 g dry bread without the crust200 ml milk30 ml Vin Santo50 g raisins50 g pine nuts1 sprig parsley parsley3 average size onion1 eggs150 g grated pecorino cheese100 g breadcrumbs3 cloves garlic4 cherry tomatoes (optional)12 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil salt and pepper
Remove the cabbage’s outer leaves (they’re the toughest ones). Then take off 8 leaves, all around, and put them on one side. Chop the rest of the cabbage. Sauté 2 cloves of garlic in a heavy-bottomed frying pan with 5 tablespoons of olive oil, when they are light golden, remove them and tip in the cabbage. Toss it for a couple of minutes, add 1 cleaned and thinly sliced onion, stir and season with salt. Turn up the heat and pour in the Vin Santo; when it has evaporated continue cooking over a moderate heat. When the cabbage is cooked (it will take 15-20 minutes) leave it to cool. Cut the bread into pieces and put it in the milk until it has absorbed it completely. Squeeze it and then, in a bowl, mix it with the cabbage (which has cooled down), pecorino cheese, pine nuts, raisins (soaked in cold water and then squeezed) and egg. Use your hands to combine the ingredients better and make a smooth compact mixture. Bring some water to the boil in a saucepan and add a little salt; take the cabbage leaves that you put on one side and, one at a time, put them into the boiling water. Cook them for approximately 3 minutes and remove them when they’re “al dente” (= firm to the bite) and put the water to one side. Let them cool down and then pat them dry between two cotton tea towels. Pour 4 tablespoons of olive oil into an oven dish with ½ a ladle of the water the cabbage leaves were cooked in. Slice the other 2 onions finely and place them in the oven dish, spreading them out to cover the entire surface. Take the cabbage leaves while still warm and put one or two spoonfuls of the filling you’ve prepared (according to their size) in the centre of each one. Fold the longer sides of the leaf over on top of the filling, then tuck the ends underneath to create a small “parcel”. Close the parcel with 1 or 2 toothpicks, or with kitchen string. As you prepare them, lay them one beside the other in the oven dish, on top of the sliced onion. Wash and pat dry the parsley, chop it finely together with a clove of garlic; combine this mixture with the breadcrumbs and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Drizzle a little olive oil over the cabbage parcels in the dish and sprinkle with the breadcrumb and parsley mixture. If you like, you can wash and dry the cherry tomatoes, cut them in half and place them on top. Cook in a preheated oven, at 180 °C, for roughly 15 minutes. Let the parcels cool down for at least quarter of an hour… and then they’re ready for the table!