Cabbage and rye bread soup with melting Killeen

Prep time: 1 hour Cook time: 1 hour

Serves 6

This is very thick – almost like a layered bake more than a soup – but if you want it to be more soup-like, have extra chicken stock available and add as much as you want. It’s better with home-made stock.

I learnt how to make this on a cookery course in Florence, though the dish comes from the Valle d’aosta. I would never have cooked anything called ‘cabbage soup’ but this is wonderful, deeply savoury and warming.

INGREDIENTS

– 80g butter

– 1 tbsp rapeseed or groundnut oil

– 4 large onions, very finely sliced – 4 garlic cloves, finely sliced

– 600g savoy cabbage, central core removed and leaves cut into broad strips

– 350g rye sourdough or coarse country bread, or a mixture of the two, torn into 2cm-square chunks

– 300g Killeen goat’s Gouda, rind removed, thinly sliced

– 1.8 litres chicken stock (you may need a little more, so have it available)

– 3 tbsp grated Parmesan or pecorino, or, if you want to keep this completely British and Irish, Berkswell cheese

METHOD

Heat the oven to 170C / 160C fan/gas mark 4.

Melt 60g of butter in a large ovenproof sauté pan and add the oil. Heat these together and add the onions. Season with salt and pepper, cover the pan and cook the onions over a low heat until they’re soft and shrunken. This means you have to keep a close eye on them, checking and stirring from time to time. Adding a splash of water – about 50ml – every so often makes things much easier (the onions shouldn’t catch and burn on the bottom of the pan). Once the onions are soft, remove the lid and increase the heat so that excess water boils off. Add the garlic and cook for another two minutes or so. Transfer the garlic and onions to a bowl.

Melt the rest of the butter in the same pan. Add the cabbage, a couple of tablespoons of water, salt and pepper. Cover the pan and cook the cabbage until it’s soft but not collapsing, shaking the pan every so often. It should take 8-10 minutes. Transfer the cabbage to a bowl.

Using the same pan again, layer up the bread, onions, cabbage and slices of the Killeen, seasoning as you go (the layers don’t need to be neat). Bring the stock to a boil and pour it over the top. Cover with a lid, put into the oven and bake for 45 minutes.

Take the pan out of the oven and turn the heat up to 190C/180C fan/gas mark 5. Remove the lid, sprinkle grated cheese on top and return to the oven without a lid.

Bake for another 15 minutes, or until the cheese on top is golden. This isn’t like a regular soup as it shouldn’t be brothy, but equally it shouldn’t be dry. Add more boiling stock if you need to.

Serve immediately.