Until recently, every family in Tuscany had a vegetable garden of some sort, lately this has once again become a trend. One of the vegetables that you are sure to find in a vegetable garden this time of the year is kale or, cavolo nero (‘black cabbage’) also known as Tuscan kale. This type of cabbage is typical to Tuscany and almost represents Tuscan people with its simplicity and its strong, slightly bitter flavor.
Ingredients
1kg kale
4 sausages
2 cloves of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
Broth
Salt and pepper
Preparation
Boil the finely chopped and well washed kale.* Pierce the sausages with a fork a fry in a pan with a little olive oil. Once they are well browned, take out of the pan and add the garlic until it is golden. Then add the boiled, chopped kale and some of the broth until it takes on the flavour in the pan. Finally, add the sausages and cook together briefly.
The original recipe known as Cavolo con le Fette is the winter alternative for the famous summer Panzanella. An extremely poor yet flavorful starter or side dish perfect at this time of the year when kale is in season and crispy. Kale is particularly good when the weather is cold and olive oil that has been pressed this past november is still good and slightly bitter. This simple authentic Tuscan recipe is made using slices of unsalted Tuscan bread, garlic, oil, salt and pepper. All you need to do is toast the slices, rub the bread with a clove of garlic and place the boiled kale leaves on top (drain them) salt and pepper and finally drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
*tip: remove the harder central part of the leaf
