Cut the cabbage into good-sized pieces and strip off the outside leaves. Cut out the hard core, wash well in two or three changes of water, and drain thoroughly. Put the cabbage (a piece at a time, so as not to stop the boiling) into a large sauce-pan or earthen pot of salted boiling water. Cook for twenty-five minutes over a hot fire (with pot uncovered), and push the cabbage under water every now and then.
Cabbage ‘farcito all’ Americana.’
Take a large cabbage and boil it whole for fifteen minutes. Then change the water and boil again for half an hour; meanwhile prepare the stuffing. Put about one pound of rice into cold water and boil for twenty-five or thirty minutes, add three and a half pounds of sausage, the juice of a lemon, some chopped parsley and a little pepper, and mix well. Dry the cabbage thoroughly, open the leaves, and put half a tablespoonful of the stuffing between each leaf, folding them over it, until the cabbage is quite stuffed. Then tie it up carefully in a piece of linen and put it into a sauce-pan of boiling water. When boiled remove the cloth, put the cabbage in a vegetable dish, pour an ‘Alla Panna’ sauce (see Sauces, p. [125]) over, and serve.
Cabbage ‘alla Crema.’
Choose a white cabbage, remove the outer leaves and cut it into quarters. Soak in cold water for an hour, then dry, and put it in an earthen pot of boiling water to cook. Then let it cool for about ten minutes and put it into another pot of boiling water, adding salt and pepper, and boil, keeping the cover on tight. When done serve with an ‘Alla Panna’ sauce (see Sauces, p. [125]).
Cabbage ‘al Forno.’
Boil the cabbage as directed above. Press out all the water and chop it up. Put a layer in the bottom of a pie or vegetable dish, cover with a white sauce made of one cup of milk, one tablespoonful of butter, one of flour, a little salt, and a pinch of cayenne pepper, and then add a layer of grated cheese. Repeat your layers of cabbage, sauce, and cheese; cover the top with a layer of bread-crumbs and bits of butter, and put it in the oven. When the sauce bubbles on the top take it out and serve up in the same dish.
Cabbage ‘Fritto.’
Wash and cut up a cabbage, put it into a sauce-pan of boiling water. Boil for twenty minutes, then dry, and put it into a sauce-pan with four ounces of butter, two spoonfuls of white wine vinegar, some salt, and pepper; mix well together until it becomes well heated. Then serve up.