Pasta with cabbage and walnuts
Łazanki is a dish that I associate with traditional Polish cuisine, the cuisine of my childhood and my grandmother’s cooking. The dish was popular in the old days. It was cheap to prepare and was made from generally available products such as cabbage and flour.
The name łazanki hides a dish that is made from pasta and cabbage. Strictly speaking łazanki is prepared from thickly cut pasta, served with cabbage. The cabbage can be pickled, fresh, or with mushrooms added to it.
I decided to twist this simple dish a bit by adding a bit of walnuts. The whole dish turned out to be really tasty.
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Ingredients for pasta with cabbage.
Homemade pasta:
- 300 g plain flour + extra for dusting
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 egg
- lukewarm water
- 1 teaspoon of salt
Fried cabbage:
- 1 small onion
- 100 g smoked lard
- 1 medium sized cabbage
- 1 flat teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
- 50 g walnuts
- 600 ml vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoons of butter
Additionally: baking dish.
How to make pasta with cabbage.
Pasta: sift the flour on a pastry board. Make a small well in the center of the flour mound, add the egg and half a teaspoon of salt. Start by mixing the egg with the salt and a bit of flour. You can do it with a fork or with your fingers. Gradually add lukewarm water and at the same time start adding the surrounding flour. Fold the dough until all ingredients are well combined. The consistency of the dough should be rather firm, but at the same time it should be quite easy to knead. Knead the dough for a few minutes – it should be elastic and smooth. Divide the dough into two parts. Roll out each part very thinly, almost until the point when dough is transparent. Set it aside for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, cut each of the pieces into 3-centimetre wide strips and dust slightly with flour. Put a few strips on top of each other and cut them with a knife into pieces 2 centimetres wide. Boil water with a tablespoon of salt. Put the pasta in, stir with a spoon and bring it to boil. When the water starts to boil, reduce the heat. Cook over a low heat for 3 minutes. Pour the cooked pasta into a colander and pour some cold water over it. Allow the water to be drained.
Fried cabbage: boil a whole cabbage until tender then let it cool down. Cut the core out then either very finely chop it with a knife or grind in a meat grinder.
Grind or chop the walnuts in a food processor.
Put the finely chopped pork lard in a pan. Fry over a medium heat until the lard is melted but its colour is not golden. Add finely chopped onion and fry for 2-3 minutes. Next add the chopped cabbage, ground walnuts, salt and pepper. Fry on a low heat for 50 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Grease a baking dish with a half of soft butter. Put one part of the pasta on the bottom, add some cabbage on it then again pasta and cabbage etc. Repeat these steps several times but topmost layer should be pasta. Pour the vegetable broth over the cabbage and pour the remaining butter on top.
Cover the dish with a lid or aluminium foil. Put in an oven preheated to 180 degrees Celsius for an hour. After 40 minutes, remove the lid and let the pasta acquire a slightly brown colour. Serve the pasta, sprinkled with sliced nuts and extra butter.
Good to know when making pasta with cabbage.
The baking tin I used was rectangular and had a size of 21 by 30 centimetres.
Vegetable broth is very easy to prepare. You can make it by cooking a mixture of various vegetables such as: onion, carrot, celery, leek or parsley. The broth can be prepared in larger quantities and then frozen.
Do you like cabbage? If so, try our recipe for Creamy cooked cabbage.
