One Of My Grandmother's Best Sausage Recipes - Italian Style Pasta Sauce With Cabbage

By Gerri Lauder

While searching through my recipe files the other day I found a true family gem. This recipe was used by my grandmother, Nona, to feed our family on cold winter nights. It was one of her best pasta and sausage recipes that she learned from her mother in the "Old Country". I still recall the warm feeling I got enjoying the comforting, mellow flavors of the creamy cabbage and sausage. I had not made it for a long time but I still remembered how wonderfully sumptuous it was. It now is one of my family's favorite pasta and sausage recipes. Italian sausage never tasted better. The secret is in the way you braise the cabbage.

Here is a list of what you will need for four to six servings:

1 Head of Napa or Savoy cabbage
1/2 Teaspoon sea salt
4 Tablespoons of olive oil
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 Cup chicken stock
1/2 Chopped yellow onion
2 Teaspoons minced garlic
8 oz. Sweet Italian sausage
1/3 Cup heavy cream
1/2 Teaspoon white pepper
1 Tablespoon Italian parsley
1/2 Cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

The first step is always the same when making pasta, start boiling some pasta water.

1. Wash the individual cabbage leaves, dry and give them a rough chop. Next, heat a pan and add the butter and 2 Tablespoons of olive oil. When they are melted, add the cabbage and salt and saute for a few minutes coating all of the leaves with the oil-butter mixture. Add the stock and cover with a tight fitting lid. Reduce the heat to a soft simmer and let the cabbage braise for ten to fifteen minutes while you prepare the rest of the dish.


2. As the cabbage is braising, take a 10-inch skillet and heat 2 Tablespoons of olive oil to medium and saute the onions until they are limp and translucent. If you are using sausage links, remove the meat from it's skin casings as you should do with all pasta and sausage recipes, and break it up before putting it in the skillet. Add the garlic and sausage. Stir the meat and brown it well on all sides.


3. Remove the braised cabbage and mince the leaves as small as you can. Add the cabbage and all of the juices to the sausage in the skillet, turning the entire mixture to incorporate the flavors. Cover with a tight lid and cook at a low temperature for 10 more minutes, stirring often.


4. Remove the lid and add salt and white pepper to taste. Add the cream and stir with a wooden spoon blending and heating the mixture until the ingredients meld well. Remove from the heat when the cream is warm but not boiling and add the chopped parsley and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. At this point, you may add your pasta. I personally like to finish my Italian pasta dishes by putting the al dente pasta in the skillet with the sauce to coat all of the pasta.

This dish works well with pasta having some texture like conchigili (shells), or my personal favorite fusilli. I sometime use my pasta maker machine to make fresh pasta for a special treat. All you have to do is make sure you have the freshest ingredients and in the short time it takes to make this Italian sausage recipe, you will see the happiest smiles around you dinner table.

Making fresh pasta at home has been a Lauder family specialty for years. Kids, grandkids, friends and neighbors all take a hand in making the dough and sitting at the table to feast on the results. Watch a video on rolling dough through a pasta machine on Geri's website, find great cookbooks and select a pasta machine for your next family pasta party.

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