In lockdown in rural France, an Irish staple saves the day …

My lucky stars are countless right now. I know precisely how fortunate I am to be in lockdown in the countryside, with a garden, no small kids to keep busy, or teens to keep at their studies. I have wine. I have great martini ingredients! But I do think my deeper pandemic anxiety is being channelled directly into my shopping trolley. Our supermarket (living well out of town we are supposed to make just one trip per week per household) is pretty well stocked, but many staples are rationed, when available at all. I pre-order and reserve my slot for pick-up five days in advance, then check every day, sometimes twice, to see if there are eggs, or flour, or bread, or bananas available to add. There’s something so fundamentally comforting about those four ingredients, and not having them is becoming unnerving. But there is always cabbage, and suddenly I’m looking at our much-loved national vegetable with brand new eyes. It is rapidly becoming my go-to comfort food, versatile, nutritious, robust to the point of almost meaty, soaked in nostalgia for Farmgate Café lunches and Ballydehob suppers. Here’s an easy recipe to try which should bend to fit even your most basic pantry ingredients. If you don’t have a cast iron pan, cook the sauce and the cabbage slices then transfer into a baking dish.

For 4
5 minutes preparation
1 hour cooking

1 medium green cabbage
2 tablespoons olive oil
For the sauce
3 tablespoons tomato paste (reduce a can of tomatoes for 5-10 minutes if you don’t have paste)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 piece of ginger the size of your thumb (optional)
Spices?: whatever you have in your cupboard?! Ginger, cardamom, coriander, cumin, spice mixes, even chutneys are fine. Add chilli paste, powder or fresh chillis here too.
2 tablepoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

Blitz all the sauce ingredients in a mini blender to make a fine paste. Heat the oven to 180C.

Cut the cabbage in two, then cut 3 to four wedge shaped slices in each half.

Heat the oil in a heavy based pan and char the cabbage on both sides – about 3 minutes. You want them caramelised to blackened. Do this is in two stages if needs be and reserve the wedges as you go.

Wipe the pan clean, then cook the paste for a few minutes. Fill the pan half way with warm water and stir the sauce into it to dilute. Set the wedges back in the pan snugly, overlapping slightly, season lightly with salt, then roast for 40 minutes or so, turning the cabbage halfway through cooking.

The cabbage will be crispy and caramelised on top, melting and soft underneath. Serve with rice and garnish with parsley – if you can find it?!