Tyrolean-style Savoy cabbage

... trim the cabbage, pull off the leaves, wash them and drain them. Peel the onions and slice them paper-thin. Peel the garlic and chop it with the sage leaves and the rosemary needles, washed and dried. Wash the parsley and chop it finely. Melt the butter with the oil in a large pan...

 Spring is just around the corner; you, I'm sure, after the idleness of winter and the snowstorms, will have started going out in the mountains again, climbing, maybe you even managed to squeeze in a skiing week.  You are in tip-top shape, super fit, in short with a “beastly physique”… you are not even missing the Superman mask  – hard hit by the glare of the sun on the snow, you look like street lamps switched on in broad daylight – or else you have  already acquired that brownish chocolate-egg colour,  which strikes just the right note of: “I was having a great time while you were suffering in the office”.
I stress You, because, as befits someone who loves cooking and therefore little lunches,  and therefore the warmth of home, and therefore slippers, I cannot say the same of myself, and let's gloss over the shapes, the lines, the curves… how embarrassing!
Searching through my recipes, this time I have chosen for you a dish that is not only  appetising but also nourishing and healthy. Nothing better than a nice plate of “brassica oleracea”, more commonly called cabbage, a term used for several types of plant of the same species: cauliflower, broccoli, white cabbage, Savoy cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbage and kohlrabi.
It is one of the vegetables from the kitchen garden that contains, more than all the others, vitamins (B1, B2, B6, C, D, E, K, PP), but also bromine, calcium, cobalt, iron, phosphorus, iodine, copper, manganese, magnesium, potassium, zinc, sulphur, chlorophyll, which helps the production of haemoglobin and is useful for treating anaemia, and also several amino acids and folic acid; in short, such a concentrate of energy that,  for its many therapeutic properties, this plant is considered medicinal.
Do you want to fill up on fuel for one of your demanding climbs? The scents of this recipe will intoxicate your senses, it will be a pleasure for the nose and the eyes to prepare it, and your taste buds, carried away with enthusiasm, will demand seconds…  Come on, to the stove!

TYROLEAN-STYLE SAVOY CABBAGE

Ingredients for 4 people:
1 kg Savoy cabbage
3 cloves of garlic
2 onions
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
100 g butter
1 sprig of rosemary
3 sage leaves
5 dl  vegetable stock
1 pinch of fennel seeds
3 dl white wine
1 small bunch of parsley
salt and pepper

PREPARATION
Trim the cabbage, pull off the leaves, wash them and drain them. Peel the onions and slice them paper-thin. Peel the garlic and chop it with the sage leaves and the rosemary needles, washed and dried. Wash the parsley and chop it finely.
Melt the butter with the oil in a large pan and add the chopped garlic and herbs together with the onions. When the onions have softened well, add the cabbage cut into thin strips and stir, letting it fry gently for about 10 min.
Pour in the stock and the wine, then season with the fennel seeds crushed in a mortar, a pinch of salt and a grinding of pepper (healthier, for those who care, to add it as whole peppercorns). Stir and cook over a very low heat with the lid on for about an hour.
Pour the dish onto a serving plate, sprinkle it with the chopped parsley and serve (perhaps accompanied by a Lagrein Rosato from Trentino-Alto Adige).

THE VARIANT
Very similar to this is the Venetian recipe for Verze sofegàe, where, however, the cabbage strips are stewed with a soffritto of onion and pancetta and moistened with stock only.

To stay with Tyrolean cooking, try the speck canederli in broth too.