Green Galette

aka Priya & Andrew's Visit (Part 1/3)

This week Ari and I planned a special meal for my sister and brother-in-law, who were moving from a suburb of Philly to St. Louis. Priya and Andrew are accomplished and, at 29, technically adults, so we decided that their pit stop in Cleveland should involve a dinner with some pomp and circumstance. We laid out Ari's china, poured over our new Bible, and fired up the burners. And the theme? In the end, I guess the theme was Green.

Photo by Michael Cover

The first post installment is the Green Galette, a variation of the Smitten Kitchen edition. The galette is a rustic pie that should yield a comforting filling and a satisfyingly stable crust without the fussiness of a pie pan or a lattice top.
It's "Green" because it makes the dish sound invitingly fresh and invigorating, so readers aren't scared away by the 6 cups of cabbage it bears.

Don't be afraid of cabbage.

• If you treat it nicely and don't leave it on the heat for too long, cooked cabbage doesn't have to look like a B-movie sea creature.
• Raw cabbage keeps for quite a while in the fridge, making it as likely a staple as ramen.
• It's good for you. And food is the only thing we can prescribe until we graduate.

Ingredients

1 frozen pie dough

2 tbsp butter

1 large yellow onion, chopped into nail-sized pieces

1-2 tablespoons fresh dill (this was city fresh windfall, you can use dried)

1/2 zucchini, chopped as per the onion

6 cups (1/2 head) green cabbage cut into thin strips

1/4 cup cottage cheese

1 hard boiled egg, chopped

2 tbsp cider vinegar

salt

pepper from a grinder

Pull the pie dough out of the freezer to give it enough time to thaw. Melt the butter in a large skillet, then add the onion, dill, and zucchini and saute until softened (10 minutes). Add the cabbage and 1/2 tsp of salt, and turn all of the vegetables together with tongs or a spatula. After 2 minutes, add 1/4 cup of water and cover so that the cabbage can wilt down a bit. I'm not going to tell you a time for this -- just keep testing the cabbage so that it remains green but you can pick up a piece you can bite into it easily. Don't cook it for too long or it will turn grey. Add more water if necessary, but when you are done the mixture shouldn't be very wet. Turn off the heat and add the cottage cheese, egg, vinegar, and salt/pepper to taste.
Preheat the oven to 400F, unroll the pie dough, and put the filling in the center leaving 2-3 inches on all sides. Then use the remaining dough on the perimeter to make pleats that will hold in the filling. You should get 6-7 pleats before you're done. Bake the galette on a flat pan (parchment is a nice touch) for about 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack, and cut into wedges.