Name: Sacrao (Cabbage and Sausages from Emilia)
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: Salt; Pinch of cinnamon; Pinch of caraway seeds; Pinch of ground cloves; Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg; 1 star anise; 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar; 1 savoy cabbage (about 2 pounds), cut as fine as tagliatelle; 3 tablespoons unsalted butter; 2 coriander seeds; 6 fresh mild Italian sausages made without fennel

Preparation info

Serves
4 to 6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

In Nonna's Kitchen

By Carol Field

Published 1997

About

Fresh sausages in Emilia are spiced with a combination of coriander seeds, cinnamon, caraway, cloves, nutmeg, and star anise. Since it isn’t possible to find such sausages here, I make a small mixture of the spices and let it bubble briefly in the butter before adding the sausages and cabbage for their final cooking. Giovanna Dolfi-Zenzi Lusignani assures me this dish is so local to her tiny town of Pellegrino Parmense that I’d never find it even 10 miles away.