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Meat
Easy
6-8 Servings
Allergens 
No Allergens specified
2 Hours, 55 Minutes
Diets
If you grew up with cabbage rolls, you appreciate how long they take to make. Not only do you have to make the meaty rice filling, steam the cabbage, prepare the leaves, you have to roll hundreds—yes, hundreds—of tiny rolls. In Romania, home cooks take pride in how small they can roll them; the gold standard is rolls as small as a thumb. I remember my mother receiving calls from relatives, who bragged about how many they’d rolled in a day like it was a competition!: “I made 154 rolls,” “Oh, that’s nothing, I rolled 237!”
My recipe removes the rolling process, the lengthiest, fussiest part, and instead, layers the cabbage and spiced meat like building a lasagna. The cabbage is baked to perfection in tangy tomato juices, making an impressive centerpiece for any celebratory gathering.
1 small head green cabbage (about 2 pounds) [Ed. note: use bug-free cabbage]
4 tablespoons neutral oil, such as sunflower or grapeseed, plus more for greasing and drizzling, divided
2 medium shallots, finely chopped
1/2 cup long-grain white rice, thoroughly rinsed and drained
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped or 8 cubes Gefen Frozen Garlic
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound ground beef (80/20)
kosher salt
28-ounces Tuscanini Tomato Sauce
14.5 ounces Tuscanini Whole Peeled Tomatoes
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Slice the cabbage in half, through the stem. Tightly wrap the cabbage halves in aluminum foil, place on a baking sheet, and bake until super soft and tender all the way through, 45 to 50 minutes. Set aside to cool but leave the oven on.
In a medium skillet, heat three tablespoons of the oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and translucent, four to five minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring, until toasted and fragrant, four to five minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring to coat the rice in the tomato paste, until the mixture darkens and begins to caramelize on the bottom of the pan, about three minutes.
Create a space in the middle of the pan and add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, plus the garlic, paprika, thyme, black pepper, and cayenne. Cook until very fragrant, about two minutes. Add the beef and a big pinch of salt and mix well to incorporate the spices into the beef. (We’re looking to use the warmth in the pan to help break up the beef and cook it a little, but not all the way through since it will cook in the oven.) Remove the pan from the heat.
Add all of the tomato sauce and the whole tomatoes, crushing them with your hands as you add them to the beef mixture. Add a few tablespoons of water to each of the cans to swish around and pick up whatever tomato sauce is still in the can. Add that to the pan and stir to combine. This will look like a weird, raw ragu, but remember, this is all getting baked together with the cabbage. Trust the process!
To assemble the cabbage roll cake, grease a deep 10-inch springform pan (see Note) with oil. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set the springform on the baking sheet.
Add a dollop of the tomato-beef mixture to the bottom of the pan and spread it in an even layer. Pull off about one-fourth of the leaves from the steamed cabbage. Chop any thicker cabbage core pieces and save them for the final layer. Layer the cabbage leaves over the sauce, letting them overlap as needed to fully cover the sauce.
Add a third of the tomato-beef mixture over the cabbage, followed by another fourth of the cabbage leaves in an even layer. Add another third of the tomato-beef mixture and top with another fourth of the cabbage leaves in an even layer.
Top with the remaining third of the tomato sauce, followed by the remaining fourth of the cabbage leaves, including the chopped cabbage cores on top.
Tightly cover the pan with foil and bake for one hour and 20 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and drizzle the cabbage with a few tablespoons of oil. Continue to bake until the top layer of cabbage is golden brown, about 15 more minutes.
Preheat the broiler. Place the oven rack about four inches from the heating element. Broil until the cabbage is nicely charred, three to four minutes. Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Slice and serve like you would a lasagna or a cake. The reference photo [Ed. note: the second image in the gallery) stacks cabbage roll cakes; your cake should be half as tall.
Reprinted with permission from Pass The Plate: 100 Delicious, Highly Shareable, Everyday Recipes: A Cookbook by Carolina Gelen. Copyright © 2024 by Gelen Media LLC. Photographs copyright © 2024 by Nico Schinco. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
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