Red cabbage (lombarda) is a popular vegetable in Spain, especially in Castilla. Traditionally red cabbage is cooked quite a while, but José Pizarro gives a recipe for a quick stir-fry of red cabbage in his book Seasonal Spanish Food. He adds pine nuts to the finished stir fry. I've added some toasted walnuts, too. Use whatever toasted nuts you like: see my post on toasted nuts.
Pizarro cooks the cabbage with vinegar at the end. I just serve vinegar at the table for those who want it. A Southern-style hot pepper vinegar would be great with this too. You can adapt the recipe to suit your tastes. In the end it's just a simple, quick, and tasty way to prepare red cabbage. I often eat it for lunch with good bread, but it would be great as a side dish with bacalao--salt cod--the subject of a future post.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of virgin olive oil
half a red cabbage
3 or 4 garlic cloves, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup (or more) toasted pine nuts and walnuts--or other nuts of your choice
Here's how to do it:
Rinse the cabbage and slice it fairly thin.
Heat up the olive oil in a large, non-stick frying pan. Add the garlic. Let it sizzle, but not color. Add the cabbage, and stir-fry it over medium-high/high heat for 5-6 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with toasted nuts and serve, with a quality vinegar on the side, if you like.
Comments