Cookbook offers recipes, stories from the Farmers Market

“They are jumping on this like they jumped on cupcakes,” she says, noting that among their best sellers in the category are Southern Living Farmers Market Cookbook (Oxmoor, $29.95) by the editors of Southern Living Magazine, Janet Fletcher’s Fresh From the Farmers Market (Chronicle, $19.95), and, though it’s hardly local, The Irish Farmers Market Cookbook by Clodagh McKenna (HarperCollins UK, $24.95).

And in the culinary murder sub-genre, there is now Farm Fresh Murder: A Farmers Market Mystery (Berkeley, $7.99) by Paige Shelton.

Stuffed Cabbage Casserole

Kathy Vandemortel, a third-generation market shopper from Irondequoit, submitted this recipe. Here is part of her story, which accompanies her recipe in the cookbook:

“This recipe came together by accident. One day I was multi-tasking — making stuffed cabbage rolls and a pot of soup. I put the cabbage on to steam and then got very involved with the soup. Next thing I knew, the cabbage leaves were too soft to stuff and roll. I was wondering how to salvage the dish when it occurred to me to chop up the cabbage and layer everything like a casserole. It tastes the same, and it is so much easier. I haven’t rolled cabbage leaves since.”

Casserole:

8 cups shredded cabbage (about ¾ of a cabbage)

1 ¼ teaspoons salt, divided

1 package (12 ounces) of vegetarian ground meat substitute, crumbled or 1 pound of ground beef, cooked

3 ½ cups cooked rice

2 medium onions, minced

2 eggs

½ cup grated hard cheese (I use Pecorino Locatelli; Romano or Parmesan will work)

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon dried parsley

Tomato sauce:

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 ½ cups minced onions

2 large garlic cloves, minced

2 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon dried basil

½ cup red wine

2 tablespoons butter

½ cup grated Pecorino cheese

1 cup peas, fresh or frozen

For the casserole: Put about 1 inch of water in a large pot. Add the cabbage, sprinkle ¼ teaspoon salt on top, cover the pot and steam cabbage until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a large bowl mix together the ground meat substitute (or cooked ground beef), rice, onions, eggs, cheese, black pepper, remaining salt and parsley. Set aside.

For the sauce: Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the onions in oil until translucent, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the crushed tomatoes, sugar, basil and wine. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Ladle a little tomato sauce on bottom of a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking pan. Spread half of the cooked cabbage onto the sauce. Spread all of the rice filling on the layer of cabbage and pat down with your hand.

Spread the rest of the cabbage onto the filling. Top with a layer of sauce. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for one hour.

Makes 6 servings.

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