Cabbage rolls, Piedmont-style
( Capunet piemontesi )

Recipe for cabbage rolls

Preparation and cooking

• - Soak the dry bread in the milk and then squeeze out any excess of milk.
• - Steam cabbage leaves until tender.
• - Grind roast beef or buy ground beef.
• - Grind raw ham.
• - Put the egg, lightly beaten, together with ham, beef, bread, onion and aromatic herbs in a bowl.
  Season to taste with salt and pepper and shape your mixture into 12 balls according to the size of the cabbage leaves.
  Place every ball into the center of each cabbage leaf.
  Roll every leaf around its filling and fold down the edges as you can see in the photo.
  Insert a toothpick only if necessary.
• - Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
• - Prepare a baking dish.
  Place all cabbage rolls in the pan and sprinkle plain dried breadcrumbs and Parmesan on the top.
  Prepare a mixture with olive oil and wine and spoon all rolls with it.
• - Bake until their surface is golden (about 30 minutes or more).
  Add some tablespoons of vegetable stock only if necessary.

Just before serving

• - Serve your cabbage rolls warm.

Note

Tips

• - This is our home cooking recipe as my mother was used to do. My mother was born in Piedmont and knew a lot of authentic recipes of this Italian region. Every family makes these cabbage rolls according to his taste.
• - Other people use to add a garlic clove, chopped, to the mixture but I do not like garlic.
• - Another version: tie the cabbage rolls with kitchen string and fry them in abundant olive oil. Serve them immediately. In this case you increase calories and fat very much.
• - If you have any mixture left you can prepare meatballs. Fry them in a bit of olive oil.

Menu planning

• - These cabbage rolls are a perfect example of leftover cooking.
  They taste fantastic if you accompany them with mashed potatoes ;))

What's the right wine for " Cabbage rolls, Piedmont-style "?

Pair Dolcetto di Dogliani (red wine from Piedmont) to cabbage rolls from Piedmont.