STUFFED CABBAGE SOUP

with sausage and toasted farro

On the 4600 block of Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield, there is Gina – a produce market owner from a long line of produce market owners. She’s snarky and straightforward in a way that is refreshing to me. I grew up in a large family where ridicule feels like a compliment and the stink-eye feels like a hug, so Gina is a welcome presence in my life. Her personality is a comfort to me. Customers often mistake us for family – assuming that she is my mother. I don’t know whether it’s the fact that she is an Italian woman and the Italian 15% of my heritage is louder than the remaining 85%. Or if it’s the fact that she proudly sells my soup. Or it could be the way that I often burst into her store unannounced and take whatever I am in urgent need of, leaving with a silent nod from Gina and an amount added to my unseen tab. Truthfully, the way that she cares for me and everyone else on our block is nothing short of motherly. May you all have an assertive Italian woman in your lives.

The benefits of being Gina’s neighbor are innumerable but the gift she gives most often comes in the form of a home cooked meal. Usually right as we are finishing up a shift, she comes down with a pasta dish, a salad, or a fruit and cheese tray that she whipped up with what she had in the store, overjoyed to feed us. Recently, she was handing out Italian sausage and peppers. The sausage was stuffed partially with bits of cabbage. I’ve been a little obsessed with cabbage lately so it scratched my brain in a way that spawned a new soup. 

Stuffed Cabbage (with sausage and farro)

1 cup farro
1 lb. sweet (or hot) Italian sausage
2 carrots, diced
1 small onion, diced
4 cloved garlic, minced
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 small head of cabbage, cut into spoon sized pieces
6 – 8 cups chicken broth
1 bunch curly parsley
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350°. Toast farro for ten minutes, rotating the tray half way through, set aside. In a Dutch oven, over medium heat, brown the sausage. Add vegetables and sauté until they begin to soften. Add tomato paste and stir until everything is coated and the paste begins to darken. Add cabbage and stir to combine then add chicken broth. Simmer soup on medium low heat for thirty minutes until the cabbage is completely soft or to your desired consistency. Add the toasted farro to the soup. Add parsley and vinegar and salt to taste. Serve with olive oil, bread and fresh cracked pepper.

Swiftie Corner – if I am being totally honest, I am not super psyched about how 1989 TV turned out. I think it’s necessary to note that me “not being psyched” about a Taylor Swift release looks like listening to it five times a day as opposed to thirty-five. I know that for a grand swath of Swifties, 1989 was their conversion. I, however, am from a small town in rural Pennsylvania where country music is pervasive. This is to say that I have been a Swiftie since day one. Debut is a no-skip album for me.

Here is 1989 TV ranked

1. All You Had To Do Was Stay
2. Out Of The Woods
3. New Romantics
4. Style and Blank Space
5. I Wish You Would
6. Wildest Dreams
7. I Know Places
8. Shake It Off
9. This Love
10.  Clean
11.  Wonderland
12.  You Are In Love
13.  Bad Blood
14.  Welcome To New York

Vault
1. Slut
2. Now That We Don’t Talk
3. Is It Over Now
4. Say Don’t Go
5. Suburban Legends 

Happy November, I am so glad it’s here. November is the best and my favorite month because of my birthday and Thanksgiving. A very close friend of mine once said that fall and winter is a time when the outside world most closely matches how he feels on the inside. All hail Scorpio season. This week, I was honored to be on an episode of City Cast once again. I had a blast talking with them, you can listen to the episode here.

Thanks, as always, to Thomas Cipollone for editing and music on my videos. You can find his work on Instagram at @humanthomas.

Love you Gina