Click and Cook Recipes: Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Sweet & Sour Tomato Sacue

Sorry for the delay this week...long weekend, with great friends and mass amounts of food had me in a relaxed bliss. Didn't realize until last night that I hadn't even begun to plan the menu for this week and it was a mad scramble this morning to get my ingredient list and get to the stores in the few hours the kids are in school. Managed to get all accomplished and looking forward to a great week of recipes.

Asked the hubby what he wanted for dinner tonight and he said, "Something with cabbage." Oki doki...stuffed cabbage rolls it is! My grandmother makes a killer stuffed cabbage that I'm going to have to get the recipe for...so, for now, I'll give these a whirl. These are very simple to make, but a bit time consuming. You could always make the sauce a day before and have it ready to go when you start the rest of the recipe. As they say in Polish: "CIESZYĆ SIĘ!" (enjoy!)

Ingredients (recipe adapted from Food Network)

Sweet and Sour Tomato Sauce:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 1/2 quarts crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cabbage Rolls:

4 tbs extra-virgin olive oil (divided)
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Splash dry red wine
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups steamed white rice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 large heads green cabbage, about 3 pounds each

To make the sauce:

Directions

Coat a 3-quart saucepan with the oil and place over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the vinegar and sugar; simmer, until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and remove from the heat.

Place a skillet over medium heat and coat with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, until soft. Stir in the tomato paste, a splash of wine, parsley, and 1/2 cup of the prepared sweet and sour tomato sauce, mix to incorporate and then take it off the heat. Combine the ground meat in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg, the cooked rice, and the sauteed onion mixture. Toss the filling together with your hands to combine, season with a generous amount of salt and pepper.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Remove the large, damaged outer leaves from the cabbages and set aside. Cut out the cores of the cabbages with a sharp knife and carefully pull off all the rest of the leaves, keeping them whole and as undamaged as possible, (get rid of all the small leaves and use them for coleslaw or whatever.) Blanch the cabbage leaves in the pot of boiling water for 5 minutes, or until pliable. Run the leaves under cool water then lay them out so you can assess just how many blankets you have to wrap up the filling. Next, carefully cut out the center vein from the leaves so they will be easier to roll up. Take the reserved big outer leaves and lay them on the bottom of a casserole pan, let part of the leaves hang out the sides of the pan. This insulation will prevent the cabbage rolls from burning on the bottom when baked. Use all the good looking leaves to make the cabbage rolls. Put about 1/2 cup of the meat filling in the center of the cabbage and starting at what was the stem-end, fold the sides in and roll up the cabbage to enclose the filling. Place the cabbage rolls side by side in rows, seam-side down, in a casserole pan.