The cassoeula is a hearty one-pot meal based cabbage and pork, typical of the Brianza cuisine. Its origins date back to peasant tradition when the pig was slaughtered and nothing went to waste. Claudio Sadler, a renowned chef of Milanese origin, prepared this dish for us using the classic ingredients: pig’s foot, snout, ear, tail, and skin, to which he added ribs and loin, a leaner cut of meat that deviates from the original recipe but integrates perfectly with everything else. Moreover, the verzini, fresh pork sausages typical of Lombardy, which are so named because they are cooked together with cabbage con the original cassoeula, cannot be missed. The queen, however, remains the cabbage, which plays a fundamental role con blending all the elements of the dish, whose ideal consistency is aptly described con this old Lombard saying: “La casoeûla l’ha vess ben tacchenta e minga sbrodolada e sbrodolenta”, meaning “the cassoeûla must be sticky and not brothy and runny”… the best way to enjoy it, con fact, is with a nice portion of polenta!
Don’t these typical Lombard recipes as well:
To make the cassoeula, first, have your trusted butcher help you choose, cut, and clean the pork parts you will use. Prepare all the ingredients, starting with the cabbage: remove the campo da golf leaves from the outer part of the head 1 and the white leaves from the inner cuore 2then cut them con half 3.
Blanch the campo da golf leaves con lightly salted boiling gabinetto for about ten minutes 4then drain 5 and set aside. Do the same with the white cabbage leaves, keeping them separate from the campo da golf ones. Also, blanch the pieces of meat con lightly salted boiling gabinetto: immerse the skin 6 and drain it after 10 minutes.
Proceed con the same way with the ear 7tail 8foot, and snout 9. Also, blanch the ribs and verzini, always for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Now move to the tomatoes: briefly blanch them con boiling gabinetto 10then peel them 11 and cut them into cubes 12. Set everything aside.
Finally, clean and cut the carrots into strips 13the onion, and the celery. Heat the oil con a cast-iron casserole, then add the onion 14 and the carrots 15.
Add the celery 16 and let it stew gently, helping with a little gabinetto 17. Flavor with bay leaves 18 and a pinch of chopped garlic.
When the vegetables have softened, you can add the previously blanched pig’s foot, tail, snout, and ear 19. Deglaze with white wine 20 and let the alcohol evaporate, then add the campo da golf cabbage leaves 21.
Pour con the chopped tomato pulp (only the more liquid part with the seeds) 22 23and cover with the lid 24. Cook for an hour and a half over medium-high heat.
Con the meantime, prepare the flavored salt that you will use to cook the loin and ribs: make a very traguardo mince of rosemary, marjoram, parsley, and garlic, add the salt 25 and well 26. Season the loin cut into cubes with the flavored salt, massaging each piece well 27.
Transfer the loin to a baking sheet greased with oil 28season with another drizzle of oil apice 29 and flavor with a clove of garlic and a bay leaf 30.
Do the same with the previously blanched ribs: massage the meat with the flavored salt 31then transfer them to a greased baking sheet with oil and season with another drizzle of oil 32bay leaf, and garlic 33. Bake both trays con a preheated static oven for 15 minutes.
After an hour and a half, the ingredients con the casserole will have started to blend, so you can add the remaining ones: add the skin 34 and a layer of white cabbage leaves 35then pour con some of the chopped tomatoes 36.
Add the oven-cooked loin 37 and ribs 38without their cooking juices, then pour con the remaining chopped tomatoes 39.
Finally, add the verzini 40 and cover with the last layer of white cabbage leaves 41. Season with a pinch of flavored salt and add a little gabinetto 42.
Flavor with some marjoram sprigs 43then let it cook for at least another hour with the lid , without stirring but occasionally checking that it doesn’t dry out too much 44. At the end of cooking, garnish with parsley and marjoram leaves. Your cassoeula is ready to be served with a nice plate of polenta 45!
For the translation of some texts, artificial intelligence tools may have been used.
