On Thursday’s Morning, Alan Morrissey was joined by Paul Knapps, The Firefighting Chef, from Killaloe.
This week, Paul joined Alan to discuss his latest recipe for roasted cabbage wedges served on a bed of sun dried tomato lentils with an olive and lemon pangrattato.
The recipe is broken down into 3 parts , the cabbage , the lentils and the crumb.
Ingredients:
For the Cabbage:
100ml extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, crushed.
1 large winter green cabbage, outer leaves removed, and cut into 6 wedges.
For the lentils:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions finely chopped.
2 celery stalks finely chopped.
250g red lentils
1 x can chopped tomatoes.
2 vegetable stock cubes
450ml of hot water
3 tbsp sundried tomato purée( you can use tomato puree but the sundried tomato paste gives a much deeper flavour)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
small bunch of basil, finely chopped, plus a few whole leaves to serve.
For the black olive and lemon pangrattato:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed.
½ -1 tsp chilli flakes
3 thick slices stale crusty bread or sourdough, crusts removed then blitzed into breadcrumbs (about 120g or if you’re stuck you can use panko breadcrumbs)
1 lemon, zested.
100g Kalamata or black olives, pitted and roughly chopped.
Method:
For the cabbage:
Pre heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6
For the cabbage, mix the oil and garlic, rub all over the wedges, season, then spread out on a large baking tray. Roast on the top shelf for around 40 to 45 mins (once a knife goes easily into the core , you know you’re done) easy wasn’t it!
For the lentils:
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan and fry the onions and celery until soft and translucent, this will take about 10-15 mins. Once this is done we can now tip in the lentils, tomatoes, 450ml water, stock cubes, sun dried tomato purée and red wine vinegar , stirring everything together and slowly bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 30-35 mins, stirring occasionally until the lentils are soft and cooked through( if you want to you can easily lob them in the oven with the cabbage to a little lazy cooking to free up some time , I do love food that thrives on neglect).
If the mixture gets a little dry, add a splash of water to stop it sticking. Once the lentils are cooked, we can stir in the basil and an extra 50ml boiling water to loosen the mixture if needed Season well and were nearly ready to serve.
For the pangrattato:
While the lentils are cooking, we can make the pangrattato, which basically is Italian for posh breadcrumbs.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and quickly fry off the garlic and chilli for 30 seconds, being careful not to burn it , then add the breadcrumbs and stir in the garlic oil and chili as we toss and toast until golden and crunchy, then tip in the lemon zest and olives and fry for a further 3 mins so its golden brown and crispy and all that’s left to do is to pop it aside to cool.
Plating:
To serve, spoon lentils onto each plate making a decent size circle and place a cabbage wedge on top of the lentils, now sprinkle over the pangrattato on to the cabbage and also on the plate, the parts not covered by the lentils, and to finish garnish with the extra basil and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Enjoy!
You can listen to the full interview below.
