Looking for an unusual recipe for Valentine’s Day? Then try savoy cabbage rolls stuffed with cous cous, with red beet, chickpeas and carrots, served with red hearts and Red Label Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP. A recipe that combines both simplicity and refinement, in which each ingredient is part of a perfect blend of textures, colors and flavors.
Preparation time: about 1 hour
Ingredients for 2 persons:
- Savoy cabbage: 1
- Precooked cous cous: 100 gr
- Precooked chickpeas: 150 gr
- Precooked red beet : 2 small or 1 big
- Carrot: 1
- Scallion: 1
- EVO Oil
- Butter: 2-3 knobs (*optional)
- Salt: to taste
- Red Label Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP
*You can use some EVO Oil instead
Process:
Take 4 whole, large leaves of the savoy cabbage, wash them thoroughly and blanch them for 2 to 3 minutes in boiling salted water; then pull them out, place them in ice-cold water and let them dry on a cloth.
Meanwhile, prepare the cous cous by pouring it into a bowl with the proportions of hot salted water listed on the package, add a drizzle of EVO oil, stir, cover, and let it rest 10 minutes. Once ready, mix it well. Slice a cooked red beet, cut out small hearts with stencils and keep them aside for the final decoration; cut the leftover red beet into small cubes and keep these aside as well.
In the meantime, in a skillet cook, with a drizzle of EVO oil, the remaining cabbage that has been washed and cut into thin strips with a chopped scallion and finely cubed carrot. After 10 minutes, add the chickpeas, the diced red beet and then salt to taste. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes and deglaze with 3 tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar. Blend the dressing into the cous cous and add a drizzle of EVO oil.
Let it cool some minutes.
Fill cabbage leaves, shape them into dumplings, close them with kitchen twine and cook them in a pan for a few minutes on both sides with a drizzle of EVO oil and, if you like, a few knobs of butter.
Serve your savoy cabbage rolls with the red beet hearts you have previously prepared, finish, if you wish, with a drop of Balsamic Vinegar and enjoy with the remaining couscous, if any.
