Verzolini Della Vigilia

Name: Verzolini Della Vigilia
Yield: Makes 2 Dozen Stuffed Cabbage Leaves
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 570 g (1 lb 4 oz) tender small leaves from a large cabbage; 6 tablespoons milk; 75 g (2½ oz) stale white bread; 3 eggs, beaten; 225 g (8 oz) freshly grated Parmesan cheese; salt and pepper; 115 g (4 oz) dried breadcrumbs; 3 tablespoons olive oil; 1 onion, finely chopped; 30 g (1 oz) butter; 1 tablespoon tomato paste; 8 canned tomatoes, sieved; stock

Christmas Eve Cabbage

Preparation info

Makes
2
Dozen Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Recipes from an Italian Farmhouse

By Valentina Harris

Published 1995

About

A very different Christmas speciality for the night before Christmas when it's traditional not to eat meat in Italy. It is a rustic, simple and tasty dish, consisting of stuffed cabbage leaves stewed in tomato sauce, from the province of Parma. Serve 4–5 each as a starter, or as a vegetarian main course with salad.

Ingredients

570 g (1 lb 4 oz) tender small leaves from a large cabbage

Europe
Italy
Starter
Main course
Christmas
Mediterranean
Vegetarian

Method

Soak the stale bread in the milk for about 10 minutes. Wash the cabbage leaves. Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the cabbage leaves for about 8 minutes, then drain them and lay them out flat on a worktop. Choose the 2 dozen best leaves and chop the rest finely.

Squeeze the bread dry, mix with the Parmesan cheese,