2 sm heads of cabbage chopped into 1” pieces (green & red – about 4” in diameter or 6-8c – you can use napa for the green if you wish)
1.5-2c diced Heirloom Tomatoes and their juice and seeds (a variety of colors is aesthetically pleasing)
6 slices of thick cut pancetta (I used Santi’s pancetta)
1 sm yellow onion chopped
1/4c of reserved bacon fat (from cooking)
Optional: Salt, Pepper & 1/4tsp of Chili Powder (I omitted this as the pancetta I chose was already heavily seasoned.)
Fry the pancetta over medium heat. When crisp remove it from the fat and pour out all but 1/4c of the fat. Add the onion to the pan and when it starts to caramelize add the cabbage and mix well. Then add the tomatoes and juice.
Warm the cabbage mixture over medium heat until the cabbage is not cooked but just warmed through and slightly softened. Crumble the cooled bacon. Remove from heat and stir in the bacon or sprinkle it over the top. Serve warm.
April 2, 2005 - Joanne
Fry bacon over medium heat. When crisp remove bacon from fat and add the chopped onion. When onion starts to caramelize or starts to turn golden, add cabbage and tomatoes and reserved juice from tomatoes. Keep turning the cabbage over to incorporate tomatoes and onions. When the cabbage is warmed through and slightly softened (you do not want to cook the cabbage through – it should have some crispness), remove from heat. Crumble reserved bacon. Serve the slaw with a topping of crumbled bacon.
1 large head of Green Cabbage chopped into 1” square shreds – or you can shred it into medium thick strips
½ a large yellow onion or 1 sm medium one chopped
16 oz can of whole tomatoes stem end removed and roughly chopped juice reserved. (I used a 32 oz can with the liquid around the tomatoes drained off and used for another recipe– the tomatoes make more liquid when they are destemmed use that liquid in this recipe.)
3 pieces of smoked bacon (I used Rolf Beeler’s)
¼ tsp Chili Powder (I used Dean & Deluca’s Chili Powder Blend)
Salt & Pepper to taste
N.B. Paula Deen’s recipe calls for 6 pieces of bacon – 6 pieces would give you more crumbled bacon to top – and that would be great – but I think double the bacon fat would be too much for this dish. I like the slaw lighter – so if you use 6 pieces of bacon then discard ½ of the fat before cooking the onion. Another note: Bacons are not created equal – especially in the fat department. If you have an extremely low-fat bacon you may need to supplement with oil and conversely if you have a high fat bacon you may need to drain off the fat. I would say that between 1/8c and ¼c is what you are aiming for.
