Whole Roasted Cabbage With Grapefruit and Campari Salsa

The first time a diner sets eyes on the charred form of a whole roasted cabbage, their look is somewhat puzzled. That’s part of the fun of this recipe. The unassuming hulk of cabbage has a certain austere beauty, promising little. As you cut into it and release a waft of steam and smoke, the puzzled look of your guests will turn into an expectant countenance, as if to say “I wasn’t quite sure about this, but now I’m intrigued.” What follows with the first bite is, quite often, rapture. All of this from a humble cabbage!

If you are contemplating a daylong outdoor cooking event, hang a cabbage over very low heat for many hours. If you don’t have that amount of fire time, you can get quite nice results in an horno, or even a Weber kettle grill with a few coals banked along either side of the bottom of the kettle and the cabbage in the middle (where it is not receiving direct heat). If you don’t have outdoor fire, you can get a nice result in a hot oven. Regardless of the heat source, my recommendation for the fullest flavor and the most dramatic presentation is to give the cabbage a good long cook time. I’ve cooked it for up to 10 hours. Although I’ve never heard anyone compare a cabbage to a fine Burgundy, what holds true for both is that flavor  develops over time.