Roasted Cabbage with Pesto and Bacon

BLOG WORLD! Hello, bonjour, ciao, hola! I survived Homecoming and Will has tackled the first part of his most difficult semester of grad school. Our heads are above water and we are now capable of sharing a backlog of recipes, dating all the way back to August (if not July). We figured we needed to reignite the blog if we wanted to update it with our more recent kitchen discoveries (homemade ricotta pancakes for breakfast, anyone?). Will has diligently been cooking and I have been documenting, holding onto everything in preparation for an onslaught of recipes to be shared with you. Despite working 14-16 hour days and both of us being in and out of town, somehow in all that mess, Will found time to continue cooking enticing meals for us that were definitely blog-worthy.

To begin with the backlog sharing, as I shall name it, I present Will's roasted cabbage with pesto and bacon. If you only like the sound of two of those three things, never fear. Cabbage does not solely belong in coleslaw or sauerkraut, nor is it as gross as you may imagine. While it does have a pungency that is slightly off-putting in its raw state (if you aren't mixing it with other greens or eat a lot of it), the moment you give this head of green a chance in an altered state, you'll be surprised at what you find. You can saute it, cook it or even keep it in a flavored raw recipe. But our new favorite way of eating cabbage that actually makes you crave it slightly, is roasting it. Like many good recipes we find, Will searched The Kitchn to figure out what kind of creative recipe he could find for our millionth (exaggeration) head of cabbage we received in our food subscription box. After trying some of the above alternatives, he landed on this one. I think "bacon" is what really caught his eye, but hey, it ended up being worth it. If you're unsure about cabbage and find yourself with a head of it, I recommend putting in the effort to make it this way.

Cooking Notes: Will added homemade pesto and and served this over one sleeve of cooked soba noodles. We also had a block of bacon in the freezer, not strips, so we did not follow the cooking instructions for the bacon (see link to read more).



Roasted Cabbage with Pesto and Bacon (serves 4; adapted from The Kitchn)
1 large head green cabbage, outer leaves removed
Olive oil
S&P, fresh ground
4 slices thick bacon
Homemade pesto
1 sleeve soba noodles, cooked




If you do not have pesto on hand, prepare before making everything else. Find a recipe here.


Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Cut the cabbage into quarters and slice the bottom of each quarter at a angle to remove the stem core. Cut each quarter in half again, so you'll end up with eight wedges. Lay these on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with S&P. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, flipping the wedges halfway through. If the edges of the wedges aren't brown enough after 30 minutes, put them in for 5-minute increments until they are OR turn the broiler on low and broil them until you are satisfied.

While the cabbage is roasting, cook your bacon strips in a skillet on the stovetop. Prepare your soba noodles according to package directions. When cabbage is done, place soba noodles in a bowl, stir in some pesto, place cabbage on top of bed of noodles, crumble bacon on top and finish with a dollop of pesto. Enjoy!

Recipe: The Kitchn: Easy Winter Recipe: Roasted Cabbage