Roasted Cabbage with Walnuts and Parmesan
Description
I made this as an ‘after school snack’ for the girls (and me!) – and we all decided we would happily eat this every day. The original version is found in a beautiful cookbook called, ‘Six Seasons’, by Joshua McFadden but Smitten Kitchen is the one to thank for making it an everyday option – enjoy!
Ingredients
1 medium-large head of savoy cabbage – choose your size so that the wedges will fill a large baking sheet
extra-virgin olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 c. walnut pieces, toasted or roasted and finely chopped
1 large (or 2 smaller) cloves of garlic, grated or finely minced
1 large lemon – you will need both zest and juice
red chili flakes or Aleppo pepper
freshly grated Parmesan
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 475 and line a large baking sheet with parchment. Remove any damaged outer leaves of the cabbage and cut in all into even wedges – this could be anywhere from 8 to 16 depending on the size of the head, and trim the hard core bits. Sprinkle the baking sheet with olive oil, arrange the wedges in a single layer, drizzle on or brush the wedges with a bit more olive oil and then sprinkle all with salt and pepper. Roast for 8 to 10 minutes until a char has started – some bits may even be a bit black looking and that’s okay!! Use a spatula to carefully flip over each wedge and roast for 5 minutes more until most of the cabbage edges are dark brown.
If you’re super organized then you’ve roasted or toasted the walnuts as the cabbage is in the oven, so put all of the walnuts (hot is fine!) into a small bowl and grate the zest of half of the lemon over them and add in all of the garlic. Pour in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil, a good pinch of salt and chili or pepper flakes and stir to combine – the longer this sits, the more infused the flavors will be. When you’re ready to use the ‘dressing’, squeeze in the juice of half the lemon, taste for seasonings and adjust as you would – this has some power flavor and that’s a very good thing.
The moment the cabbage comes out of the oven, spoon the dressing evenly over all of the wedges (either directly on the baking sheet, or over the wedges after you’ve dished them up onto a large platter), and grate or toss fresh Parmesan over all, to taste. There was a minor argument over the last wedge in our house that may, or may not have ended in a minor wrestling match.
