The Foodist: Cabbage Soup with Sausage Toasts
INGREDIENTS:
½ Cup unsalted butter, softened
2 Medium-sized onions, finely chopped
1 Small head Savoy cabbage, cored and finely chopped
1 Teaspoon salt
2 Quarts water
12 Slices French bread, toasted
12 Slices garlic sausage such as kielbasa
2 Cups grated Gruyère cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
DIRECTIONS:
Melt ¼ cup of the butter in a heavy 4-quart soup pot over very low heat. Add the onions and cabbage, and cook, stirring often, until they begin to take on a golden color, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the salt and water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer tor 3o minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450°F. Place an ovenproot tureen or deep casserole in the oven to preheat.
Spread the slices of French bread with remaining 3/4 cup butter and place a round of sausage on each. Sprinkle evenly with the cheese, completely covering the sausage and bread. Press down lightly on the sausage pieces. Put the cheese-sausage croûtes on a baking sheet and bake in the oven until cheese is melted and golden, 4, to 5 minutes.
Taste the soup and add more salt if needed and black pepper to taste. Put the hot croûtes in the bottom of the hot tureen or casserole and pour the cabbage-onion soup over them. Cover and serve.
Notes
There is a surprise when you ladle this soup into a heated soup tureen lined with the sausage toasts hot from the oven. When the broth contacts the blistering sausages, it sputters and sizzles. This is unexpected and entertaining, but the aroma of the garlic sausage is breathtaking, exactly as French food writer Roger Lallemand describes:
