In this installment
Roasted Cabbage with Supec Dressing Recipe
Supec Spice Blend from Massachusetts
I’ve been loving the spice blends from Curio Spice Company in Boston. They invest in spice producers who do it ‘the right way’ and bring those spices back to folks like us.
But there are more than a few folks out there blending spices together and trying to make home cooking more accessible and flavorful, so what sets Curio apart? Well, over the summer my cohort Alex and I had the chance to attend the Good Food Mercantile show in New York City and we got to chatting with Carmen, a member of the Curio team, and it came into focus for me. Carmen didn’t talk down to the customer. It was the difference between “I’m going to tell you what to do” and “I want to share our passion with you, and maybe you’ll want to try it, too.”
Once a person is comfortable using spices (which isn’t all of us), the world opens up with all sorts of flavor possibilities. This blend in particular is like nothing I’d used before, but I can’t stop using now. I guess it’s because it’s a wonderful blend of umami and spicy flavors. They pack a lot into a little.
Supec is a mix of seaweed, shiitake mushroom, ginger, nettle, chile all of which is grown in their home state of Massachusetts. I sprinkle the blend on everything from eggs to roasted pork, but here’s a grilled cabbage recipe that’s really great with the Supec:
Roasted Cabbage & Supec Dressing
For the cabbage:
1 head (2–3 pounds) green cabbage
1½ tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper
Fresh lemon juice (a few drops, to finish)
For the mayonnaise:
1 egg
¾ teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon freshly grated garlic (from 1 clove)
¾ cup canola or other neutral tasting oil
4 teaspoons Supeq Spice
For garnish:
Sliced scallion or minced chives or parsley
Preheat the oven to 450° F. Set aside a rimmed baking sheet.
Prep and roast the cabbage
Remove any tough or discolored outer leaves on the cabbage, then cut the head in half, top-to-bottom, through the stem. Cut one half into 4 wedges, trim (but don’t remove) the stem on each wedge. Save the other half cabbage for another use.
Set the cabbage wedges on the baking sheet and brush them (all sides) with oil. Arrange the wedges cut-side down on the sheet, making sure they’re well separated from each other. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the cabbage, to taste. Roast for 10 minutes. Pull the baking sheet out of the oven, gently flip the wedges over and return the sheet to the oven, roasting until the edges of the cabbage are browned and crispy, another 10 –12 minutes. Sprinkle a few drops of lemon juice over the wedges.
Make the dressing
You’ll need an immersion blender and a clean jar with a diameter that just barely bigger than the head of the blender. Put egg, mustard, lemon juice, vinegar, and garlic into the jar; pour in the oil and let it stand for 30 seconds to settle. Submerge the blender into the jar with the head resting squarely on the bottom. Set the blender to high speed and process without moving the blender — you’ll feel it pull against the bot- tom, which is good, that vortex is crucial — and you’ll see the mayo starting to form. At this point, slowly start to slowly tilt the blender and lift it toward the surface of the mayo. Stop when all the oil has been incorporated. Stir in the Supeq Spice, taste the mayo, and add more lemon juice if needed.
Serve
Put one wedge of cabbage on a small plate, top with a generous spoonful of mayo and sprinkle on a few scallions or some herbs (or both!).
Bottega Ditalia Organic Reginelle Pasta from Italy
This pasta comes to us through friendship and the community of the speciality food world. Back in September I traveled to Torino, in the Piedmont region of Italy for a tour of food producers that was organized by the Torino Chamber of Commerce. It was an amazing trip and a big part of its success was the group of people: we were all fast friends. We’re all in food, but different areas—and I’m happily at the ‘end of the line’ being a retailer. Many of my new friends were importers who bring in pallets of products from all over Italy, and this pasta is one of them!
My friend Vince Di Piazza has a company called “Ditalia” in St. Louis, Missouri, where he imports artisan foods from all over Italy to distribute to retail stores and restaurants all over the country. For this pasta, he works with Pastaficio Marella in Bari, Puglia…the heel of the boot. They extrude their pasta through bronze dies, which gives it a rough texture that’s great for grabbing sauces. The noodle is toothsome with nutty, bready notes. In short: it’s delicious and Reginelle is a shape we don’t see too often on the shelves. It’s a long ribbon of a noodle with a curl on one side. Use this pasta as you might fettucine.