Savoy Cabbage-Wrapped Fresh Sausages

This is a traditional, Portuguese comfort food dish you often find in typical, small family-run restaurants called "tascas". It's a favourite of mine when I go out for lunch here in Lisbon. In Portuguese it's called "Salsichas Frescas com Couve Lombarda".

A while back my sister-in-law Mariana sent me this recipe so that I could make the dish myself at home. The sauce is pretty much a ratatouille of veggies, which goes great with Portuguese-styled rice called Carolino as it soaks up the stew so perfectly. The Portuguese love rice and this may come as a surprise to many but Portugal is, in fact, Europe’s largest consumer of rice. Unlike Spanish paella or Italian risotto, the country’s rice dishes are barely known beyond its borders. As for the Savoy cabbage that is used to wrap the sausages, it is one of the most popular cabbages on the Iberian Peninsula, although thought to originate from England or the Netherlands. It is cultivated in almost all horticultural areas, mainly in the central area and on the Mediterranean coast. In Portugal it is used a lot in stews and soups.

Enjoy!

💗Helena

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 fresh sausages
• ½ Savoy cabbage
• 2 cans of chopped tomatoes (drain the tomatoes if you prefer less liquid in the stew)
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 Italian, green bell pepper (my tweak to the recipe)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 can of beer
• Drops of Piri-Piri sauce (Portuguese chili-flavoured oil)
• Salt and pepper 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix the tomatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, bell pepper, bay leaf, Piri-Piri in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. 
   
   
   
   
   
2. Blanch the cabbage leaves in boiling water for 1-2 minutes to soften them as well as to remove dirt and bacteria.
3. Fry the fresh sausages to get a nice, crispy exterior. Remove from stove. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Roll each sausage in a cabbage leaf and secure with a toothpick and put on a plate. 
   
   
   

   
   

   
   
   
5. Put a layer of wrapped sausages in a deep frying pan and cover with part of the veggie mix. 
   
   
   
6. Put a second layer for wrapped sausages and cover with the remaining veggie mix. If you have cabbage leaves left over, place them in the frying pan as well. 
   
   
   
   
   
    

   

   
   
   
   
7. Pour the beer on top of everything. Then season with more salt and pepper, as well as more Piri-Piri sauce if you feel like it. Cover with a lid and let everything simmer for 1.5-2 hours. 
   
   
   
   
   
8. Serve with rice, preferably Portuguese Carolino rice.