Krautsalat

On two occasions on our trip to Südtirol back in the fall, we had a very simple cabbage salad called Krautsalat as a side dish with our meals. Both versions were of thinly sliced young cabbage dressed simply with oil and vinegar. It was one of those rare dishes that was more than the sum of its parts; we could not believe how good it was.

Roasted Steelhead Trout with Krautsalat

Recently on a rare foray to Trader Joe's, we stumbled across a pile of really young cabbages, really tight and dense and of conical shape. As much as I have wanted to make Krautsalat back here in the US, I was waiting to find just the right young and tender cabbage. Like potatoes, for cabbage, the freshly harvested young variety is far superior to that which is old and harvested months ago, storage cabbage.

Thinly Sliced Cabbage

There are many ways to thinly slice cabbage. When I was a kid, we had dedicated sauerkraut cutters, basically huge, bench-mounted mandolines. Today, a mandoline or a benriner would do the trick, or perhaps even the slicing blade on a food processor, though, to me, that cuts the cabbage too coarsely. I prefer to use a knife, so after quartering the cabbage and cutting out the core, I lay the quarter flat and slice it superfine with my handy-dandy knife.

Kneaded and Dressed Krautsalat

After slicing the cabbage, I sprinkled it with just a little salt, tossed it well to distribute the salt, and left it on the counter for 20 minutes. Then I roughly kneaded the cabbage to yield something approximating a fresh sauerkraut. After draining off the resulting salty liquid, a touch of rice vinegar and a drizzle of olive oil completed the dish.

Ann really loved this version. I preferred the version that we had in Italy in which the cabbage was dressed without salting or squeezing. Both are delicious. It's a shame that we cannot get decent cabbage at the store (not even a pretty looking Savoy). I'm going to have to make another trip to Trader Joe's on the far outskirts of town. It will be worth the hassle of getting there if they have more of these cabbages.