Peasant Food

There's nothing better than a simple meal.  I've been lusting after this one lately, so here it is: Cabbage and Noodles, Pennsylvania Style.  Why Pennsylvania style, you may ask? Because not one ingredient was grown or produced any more than 20 miles from my doorstep, that's why.  And, boy, is it yummy.

Cabbage and Noodles

You start with a good handful of fresh, local bacon, harvested from a pig you had the pleasure to feed at one time or another.  Brown that in a thick Dutch oven, then remove the bacon to a plate.  Add a half of a local sweet onion (from an Amish stand, or your own, if you have them), and saute the onion until it's just translucent.  In the mean time, you should be boiling some wide egg noodles (Amish or home made with local eggs) on the back burner.  When they're done, drain and add a pat of good creamery butter to the pot to keep them from sticking.  Set aside.

By now, your kitchen will be smelling so good that the late sleepers will wander downstairs to see what's cooking.  That's when you pull a fast one on them and add a half of a chopped savoy cabbage (your own or the farm stand's) that's been hiding in your vegetable crisper for the last few weeks.  Saute that with the onions until the cabbage is tender, then add the noodles and crumbled bacon.  Salt and pepper to taste, and you're home.

There's nothing better than a simple, local meal in the winter. Except, maybe, the smell of that bacon cooking when you're hungry.  Heaven.