Ham and Roasted Cabbage Gratin is a Cabbage Game Changer!
Are you a cabbage lover or a cabbage hater? If you’re a cabbage hater, I have a feeling that this Ham and Roasted Cabbage Gratin will be a game changer for you.
Back in the day, cabbage was served in either one of two ways when I was a kid. It was either boiled and made into a soup that pretty much every mother in the 70s relied upon to whittle away their waist, or it was made into cabbage rolls. Cabbage rolls were tedious and didn’t whittle away the waistline, so in my house it was the diet soup variety. Bleck!
This is how I learned to love cabbage:
It wasn’t until I went to France that I appreciated endive in a gratin . Endive has a cabbage-like consistency but it can be bitter, so when I tried Mimi Thorisson’s endive wrapped in ham gratin I was surprised at how a little steaming and the addition of a pork product could tame the taste. Wrap anything in ham and cover it with cheese and what could possibly go wrong, right?
But, steaming left the endive a little too limp for my taste, so I departed from that preparation and the bitter endive and opted instead to try to reinvent this wheel with by roasting a savoy cabbage and treating it to the same pigs in a blanket routine. What I discovered was a toothsome, smokey, savoury delight that wraps your cold weary bones in unctuous warmth after a long day in the field or garden.
Best part about this? You can prepare it in the morning then pop it in the fridge before you bake it. I actually made mine a day ahead of time!
Come in from a hard, cold day outside and toss it in the oven while you take a long hot soak in the tub, and emerge to a hot meal like you have a wife who has stood dutifully in the kitchen and doted upon you with this deliciousness. [Insert my feminist sarcastic face here].
And it’s easy! Which my sister Susan always says is the kiss of death for her recreating one of my recipes. So Susan, it’s not that easy 😉
Enjoy!
xoxo
Judy
Ham and Roasted Savoy Cabbage Gratin
Equipment
- oven
Ingredients
- 1 head Savoy Cabbage cored and cut into 8 wedges
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 8 slices ham sliced thick
- 2 cups milk 2%
- 3 tbsp butter divided
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups gruyere cheese grated
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and arrange cabbage wedges on it, leaving some room between. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 30-45 minutes until soft but with some texture still in them.
- While the cabbage is roasting, prepare the sauce by melting 2 tbsp of the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the flour and stir until the butter has absorbed the flour and it has turned a light yellow-ish brown. Whisk in the milk and continue whisking until the mixture has thickend and coats the back of a spoon.Once thickened, stir in the nutmeg and the cheese until the cheese has melted.Remove from heat
- Prepare a 9 X 13 casserole dish by using the remaining 1 tbsp of butter to butter the inside.
- Take the cooled, roasted cabbage wedges and wrap each one with a piece of ham and place in casserole dish with the seam side down. Continue until all wedges are in the dish.
- Top the ham wrapped cabbage with the cheese sauce. At this point you can cover and refridgerate the casserole until you are ready to bake. To bake, simply cover it with foil and place it in a 350F oven for about 30 minutes until it is hot, remove the cover and broil for a minute or two if you would like a more bubby brown cheese topping. Be sure to keep an eye on it as it browns quickly!
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Love this!
Brian it will make a cabbage lover out of most who hate it! And can we talk comfort food? 🙌🏻