Sausage and Cabbage
Updated Sept. 10, 2025
- Total Time
- 3 hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Advertisement
Ingredients
- Salt
- 3tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2pounds fresh sweet Italian pork sausages or bulk sausage
- 1large green or Savoy cabbage, about 4 pounds, cored and thickly shredded
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Crusty bread and mustard, for serving
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
499 calories; 43 grams fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 17 grams monounsaturated fat; 7 grams polyunsaturated fat; 4 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 2 grams sugars; 24 grams protein; 1159 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered by
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 300 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and butter a 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking dish. If using sausages, remove casings and discard them.
- Step 2
Place cabbage in boiling water, cover, and let water come back to the boil. Uncover and boil for 3 minutes. Drain cabbage in a colander and run cold water over it to stop cooking.
- Step 3
Put about ⅓ of the cabbage in buttered dish and cover with ½ the meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dot with butter. Repeat, ending with a final layer of cabbage, and dot top with butter.
- Step 4
Cover dish tightly with a layer of parchment paper, then top with a lid or a layer of aluminum foil. Cook for about 2½ hours, until cabbage is soft and sweet, and top is lightly browned. After 2 hours, uncover the dish: if there is a lot of liquid in the bottom, leave uncovered for the rest of the cooking time. If not, re-cover and finish cooking.
Private Notes
Comments
One of the oldest recipes in the handwritten files I inherited and a favorite in our house. I'm wondering, though, why the cabbage is boiled first in this version. In my old recipe the sausage is layered with the raw cabbage and pressed down to fit in the cooking dish. Cooking time is the same. That way the cabbage cooks in the sausage grease. Judging from the photo, the result seems to be pretty much the same and the prep is a lot easier.
This is delicious. I hate to parboil things, but often just put the chopped-up cabbage, or rapini, or whatever needs to be parboiled in a colander and pour a couple of kettles of boiling water over the item. Does the trick.
We used bratwursts instead of Italian sausage and added some potatoes, parsnips and carrots, then flavored the dish with garlic and ground caraway. We had a couple of slices of almost stale pumpernickel bread and combined
them with panko for a crumb topping along with some grated Jarlsberg. We all liked it a lot.
Julia's recipe was a great springboard. Thanks for the
inspiration!
Just the two of us, so cut everything approximately in half. Didn’t cook the cabbage beforehand and added some sweet onions. Used some links of sweet Italian sausage that were languishing in the freezer. We like cabbage but we loved this! Still had some liquid left in the bottom of the casserole even after removing the parchment paper and foil and bumping the heat up to 325° for the last half hour so I served it in shallow soup bowls with rye bread on the side. My husband picked up the bowl and drank what was left at the bottom. That’s when I knew we had a keeper! Next time I’ll add some extra fennel seed. Just be sure to get this going early so it has the full 2 1/2 hours. Cucina povera at its best! Cozy and delicious.
I’ve made this dozens of times, adapting it to my preferences each time. I usually use more cabbage and half as much sausge. I do or don’t blanch the cabbage first depending on how much time I have, and it seems to work out about the same either way! I love to top it with a little parm and panko for the last 20 minutes uncovered and serve it with pasta. So good! So easy!
Add a can of cannellini beans in the layers. Thank me later.