Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: leaf cabbage crostoni

novembre 4, 2009

Have I ever told you my mus has a twin? Aunt Silvana, they are as like as two peas in a pod. In the family, we are totally aware of all the differences: they have different voices, different hair cut, different attitude, not to mention accent! Since she married, Aunt Silvana lives in Florence, so now she speaks with a nice Florentine accent, so different from my mother’s way of speaking! If people meet one of them just a few times, it’s always the same… questioning glance, whispering and question such: has she changed clothes? wasn’t she in the other room? don’t you recognize me? and so on!

They have another important difference: mum cooks because she has to cook, she’s good, now, but she doesn’t love it. Aunt Silvana, on the other hand, really loves cooking, pots and pans!

Stew carrots cooked by Aunt Silvana are totally different from any other stew carrots I have ever tasted, and with roast beef and onions, meat loaf or all kind of vegetables is the same! So, when time came to cook leaf cabbage, the first thing I did was to phone Aunt Silvana to ask her some information. The telephone rang twice, then her jolly and loving voice welcomed me: “My love! Tell me!”.

Then she began telling me about Camillo, an old man who gave her this recipe to taste just pressed extra virgin olive oil at its best.

::::: LEAF CABBAGE CROSTONI :::::

Ingredients:

leaf cabbage
Tuscan bread
extra virgin olive oil
salt
chili
garlic

Choose a fresh bunch of leaf cabbage, rinse each leaf and remove keels to hard to be eaten. Fill a large pot with salted water and boil leaf cabbage for about one hour.

Slice Tuscan bread (bread without salt), grill the slices and rub them with a clove of garlic, if you like it.

Drain leaf cabbage, without removing all cooking water, chop it roughly and put it over grilled bread slices. If you have leftover boiled white beans, add them to the leaf cabbage, then season with extra virgin olive oil and salt and chili to taste. Better if olive oil has just been pressed: it will add a nice spicy and strong touch.

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