Cassouela Milanese — Pork Ribs and Sausage with Savoy Cabbage

Ingredients

• 200 g cotenna (pork skin), diced
• 800 g pork ribs, cut into individual ribs
• 400 g salsiccia (Italian pork sausage), left whole or halved
• 1 kg Savoy cabbage (verza), outer leaves removed, shredded coarse
• For the soffritto
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 2 celery stalks, finely diced
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 150 ml dry white wine
• 200 ml meat or pork broth, warm; used sparingly
• salt, to season at the end
• black pepper, freshly ground, to season at the end
• To serve
• 500 g polenta (coarse-ground), prepared as soft polenta

Method

1. 1
   Place the diced cotenna in a dry, heavy-bottomed pot or casserole over medium heat. Render without added fat until the skin begins to release its own lard and the pieces turn translucent at the edges — 8 to 10 minutes. The pot should glisten with rendered fat before proceeding.
2. 2
   Raise the heat to medium-high. Add the pork ribs and salsiccia in a single layer, working in batches if necessary. Brown on all sides until deeply coloured with no grey remaining — 10 to 12 minutes per batch. Remove and set aside. The fond on the base of the pot should be dark but not scorched.
3. 3
   Reduce the heat to medium. Add the carrot, celery, and onion soffritto to the fat remaining in the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are golden and fully softened — 12 to 15 minutes. The onion should be sweet-smelling, not sharp.
4. 4
   Pour in the white wine and deglaze, scraping up all the fond from the base of the pot. Allow the wine to reduce by half — the sharp alcohol smell will give way to a rounder, mellower aroma.
5. 5
   Return the browned pork ribs, salsiccia, and cotenna to the pot. Add the shredded Savoy cabbage in batches, pressing each addition down and allowing it to wilt before adding the next. Add only enough warm broth to barely moisten the base of the pot — the cabbage will release substantial moisture of its own. This is where the dish lives or dies: the braise must be concentrated, not soupy — too much liquid now will produce a watery cassouela that the cabbage cannot redeem; too little attention to this balance and neither the fat nor the flavour will fully integrate. The pot, once lidded, should show a gentle, occasional bubble at the surface.
6. 6
   Cover the pot and braise over the lowest possible heat for 2 to 3 hours, lifting the lid occasionally to check that the base is not catching. At the end of cooking the cabbage should have completely surrendered its structure, turned dark and glossy with absorbed pork fat, and the pork ribs should yield without resistance when pressed with a spoon. The preparation should hold its shape in the bowl — neither a broth nor a dry mass.
7. 7
   Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Taste: the bitterness of the raw cabbage must be entirely absent; the dominant note should be savoury, slightly sweet, and deeply porky. Adjust seasoning and serve immediately in deep bowls over soft polenta.