It may come as a surprise to some, but Italians make stuffed cabbage. The dish, which they call involtini di verza or cabbage rolls, is especially popular in the central and northern regions of the country. If you’ve traveled to Italy as a visitor, however, you may not have come across it, as it’s is one of those dishes that are usually made at home and only rarely feature on restaurant menus.

Perhaps the most typical are stuffed with a meat filling, which aren’t terribly different from the Central European recipes you may be more familiar with. But there are some notable differences. For one, Italians favor Savoy cabbage, which they call ‘verza’, over the green cabbage used elsewhere. The tender leaves of a Savoy cabbage only need a few minutes’ pre-boiling. Then, after they’re stuffed, the cabbage rolls go into the oven for a brief stint, just long enough to cook the filling through and lightly brown their tops. No need for a long braise in sauce. And, speaking of which, perhaps surprising to non-Italians, more often than not Italian recipes for involtini di verza forego tomato sauce in favor of a light butter and cheese topping.

Italian recipes for involtini di verza include a fairly dizzying variety of possible fillings in addition to the usual meat one. In the spirit of this Lenten season, I thought I’d share this meatless recipe, involtini di verza con merluzzo e patate or Cabbage Rolls Stuffed with Cod and Potato. The filling includes fresh cod, minced and mixed with mashed potato, enriched with eggs, grated parmigiano-reggiano and parsley—and if you want, further enriched with diced mozzarella or scamorza. It’s light but very satisfying!

Ingredients

Serves 3-4

10-12 large outer leaves of a Savoy cabbage (roughly half a head)
salt

For the filling:

500g (1 lb) cod fillet
500 g (1 lb) potatoes
2 medium eggs
50g (2 oz) freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano
A few sprigs of fresh parsley, finely minced
Salt and pepper
50g (2 oz) mozzarella or scamorza, in small dice (optional)

For baking:

50 g (1/2 stick) butter
1-2 cloves of garlic
A sprig of fresh sage
More parmigiano-reggiano, q.b.

Directions

Prepping and pre-cooking the cabbage leaves

Gingerly remove the cabbage leaves from the head, taking care not to rip them.

Thrown the leaves into a large pot of well salted boiling water. Boil them in well salted water until tender but not falling apart, perhaps about 2-3 minutes.

Drain and let the leaves cool in a colander.

Making the filling

Boil or steam the potatoes still in their skins (aka jackets) until tender. Let them cool and, when they are cool enough to handle, peel them. Cut them into wedges and pass them through a food mill or potato ricer into a mixing bowl. Let cool completely.

Mince the cod fillets with a meat grinder or food processor. (Or a sharp knife if you’re feeling energetic.) Add the cod mince to the mixing bowl.

Add the other stuffing ingredients and mix well with a spatula until you have a smooth, uniform mixture.

Fold in the diced mozzarella or scamorza if using.

Forming and baking the involtini di verza

Now take a cabbage leaf, open it up inside up. Cut out the base of the central rib. Place a good dollop of filling on the leaf, then fold the sides inwards on top of the filling, then starting at the base roll the leaf up to form a tidy package.

Repeat until you’ve stuffed and rolled all the leaves.

Place the rolls in a baking dish in which they can fit snugly together, like so:

Involtini di verza con merluzzo e patate

Melt the butter with the garlic and sage over gentle heat. Let them simmer together very slowly for a few minutes so the butter is infused with the aromatics. Take care that the butter doesn’t brown at all.

Spoon the melted butter over the rolls. Then top with a generous dusting of grated cheese.

Bake the rolls in a hot (200C/400F) oven for 15-20 minutes, or until they are cooked through and golden brown on top. If need be, you can run them briefly under the broiler to brown.

Serve your involtini di verza while still warm but not scalding hot.

Notes

Only slightly tricky parts of making involtini di verza con merluzzo e patate is peeling the cabbage leaves off the head and forming the cabbage rolls. Unlike green cabbage, the leaves of Savoy cabbage are flexible and loose enough so you should be able to peel them off the head without the need to loosen them by boiling the whole head. You do need to perform the operation fairly gingerly, however, to avoid ripping them. If you do encounter a recalcitrant leaf, here’s a little trick: cut it at the root and it should come off easily.

You should also take care to wrap your pre-cooked cabbage leaves around the filling entirely so it doesn’t ooze out during baking (especially important if you’re using that gooey mozzarella or scamorza). For this you should fold the sides inwards to they seal in the filling, then roll the leaf up from bottom to top, so the root end is enclosed. Some recipes have you tie the cabbage rolls with string as well, but provided you’ve taken care rolling them and fit them snugly in your baking dish, I find the tying a bit of overkill.

Exactly how much filling goes on each cabbage leaf will depend on the size of the leaf so I don’t give measurements in the recipe. That said, for a large leaf perhaps two heaping tablespoons would be a good rule of thumb.

The potatoes should be the mealy kind you’d use for mashed potatoes, in North America Russets would do well. Do be sure to cook them in their skins (jackets) so they stay dry inside. It takes a little longer but mashed potatoes from cut up potatoes is a soggy mess.

Variations

As mentioned, there are a fairly dizzying array of involtini di verza recipes in the Italian repertoire. Staying close to this recipe, you can certainly sub out other fresh fish for the cod. If you like assertive flavors, you could use dried codfish aka baccalà, soaked overnight and lightly poached, then shredded. Or for a simpler pantry dish, try a can of tuna.

If you really like your stuffed cabbage with tomato sauce, feel free. You could use any of the simple sauces found in our Tomato Sauce 101 post to nap over the rolls before baking instead of melted butter. You could forego the cheese, as many recipes do. But then again, a grated cheese topping is never amiss.

Otherwise, straying further afield, you could go with a meat stuffing for your involtini di verza. If you want a potato filling like this one, then omit the fish and add diced cooked ham. And don’t forget the diced mozzarella or scamorza!

Finally, if you want a pure meat stuffing more akin to Central European cookery, then you could opt for one with ground beef and/or pork, mixed with bread and cheese as if you were making a meatball or meatloaf. In some recipes, sausage or mortadella also figures in the stuffing. A lovely example is this recipe from fellow food blogger Paola Lovisetti of Passion and Cooking.

What to do with leftover cabbage or filling

You’ll likely have about half a head of Savoy cabbage left over. There are lots of ways to enjoy it: with the buckwheat pasta called pizzocheri for example, one of my favorite winter pastas. Or added along with beans to polenta and baked, for a real stick to ribs one dish meal. Or in a soup like the Piemontese zuppa alla canavesana or a classic minestrone. Savoy cabbage is also delicious braised with sausages for a really hefty main course. Or on its own as a side dish, braised with pancetta.

And if you have any filling left, you can form it into a loaf and bake it just as you would a polpettone di tonno.

Making ahead

Involtini di verza can be made ahead up to the point where the cabbage rolls are set in a baking dish. When you’re ready to cook, nap them with melted butter and top with grated cheese, then bake. They’re also [quite edible] if made entirely ahead and gently reheated in a low oven or microwave.

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