Another snowy day, another rummaging through my refrigerator in search of something with which to feed myself. This time, I ended up with one of most warm, comforting, and flavorful dishes I can imagine coming from just three basic ingredients, maybe three minutes of prep time, and what may be the three cardinal rules of vegetables.
As has been well-documented, a wise rule for vegetables is: roast first and ask questions later. Another wise rule is: add bacon. Another rule, beloved by carbophiles like me: serve them over pasta, especially when there’s delicious bacon juice to mix the noodles with. [Is “bacon juice” is a better phrase than “bacon grease”? Or does it just make you think of squeezing raw bacon?]
Before.
After.
I was actually pretty sure that I didn’t much like regular green cabbage, but this dish proved me very wrong.
Roasting the cabbage makes it sweet and silky, with lovely burned bits and salty fattiness from the bacon. The original recipe didn’t call for onions, but I think they helped make this dish more multi-dimensional. Honestly, this dish probably doesn’t need pasta, but I couldn’t help myself. There was all that wonderful bacon juice, and egg noodles seemed such a perfect complement to the cabbage-and-onions rusticness.
No meal is complete without pasta!
Roasted cabbage with onion and bacon
Adapted from The Kitchn
Note: I halved this, since I only had half a head of cabbage, which is why the amounts are smaller in the photos above.
1 large head green cabbage, outer leaves removed
2 onions
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 slices thick bacon
Egg noodles (optional)
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Cut the cabbage into quarters and slice the bottom of each quarter at an angle to remove the stem core. Cut each quarter in half again so you have eight wedges. Peel the onions and cut each into eight wedges. Lay all of your assorted wedges onto a large baking sheet and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Cut each slice of bacon into small strips and lay on top of the cabbage and onions.
Roast for 30 minutes, flipping the cabbage wedges once halfway through. Toward the end of the cooking time, keep an eye out–the onions may start to burn. [Actually, now that I think about it, it may make sense to add the onions about five minutes into the cooking time.]
Serve immediately, over egg noodles. Serves 4.
Felony Kirsch 
January 31, 2010 at 11:57 am
roasted cabbage. YES. the bacon almost doesn’t even matter to me in comparison.
almost.
thanks for continuing to feed my food-porn needs melanie.
January 31, 2010 at 1:30 pm
I do think the bacon plays a large role in making the cabbage sing. On the other hand, without the moisture bacon grease, the cabbage will probably be crispier and have more pleasing charred bits. I wonder if it would be good with something else to provide that hint of smokiness, like maybe smoked paprika.
January 31, 2010 at 9:32 pm
For some reason, “juice” doesn’t sound very appealing except after a few words, like “apple” or “orange”. I don’t know why “bacon drippings” should sound more appetizing to me, but it does. What a great recipe—you could probably also have it with mashed potatoes or polenta instead of pasta.