Her mother's from Brazil, she grew up in Italy and her grandfather lived in Mexico – Ottolenghi protégé Ixta Belfrage fuses her background into her food in her cookbook Mezcla: Recipes to Excite, which celebrates everyday eating with built-in wow factor. For this dish, Ixta says, "The mango and harissa sauce is the star here and couldn't be easier to put together. It works well in so many contexts: try it with roast chicken, marinated tofu or grilled fish or prawns, or let it come to room temperature and use it as the base for a fish or prawn crudo dish. For a quick midweek dinner, serve the cabbage with fried eggs."
Ingredients
| 1 medium | savoy cabbage |
| 1 tsp | flaked salt |
| 3 Tbsp | olive oil |
| 1 | jalapeño, thinly sliced into rounds (optional) |
| 5g | fresh herbs (preferably a mix of dill and coriander) |
| To serve | Greek-style yoghurt (optional) |
| To serve | lemon wedges |
Mango and harissa sauce
| 3 Tbsp | olive oil |
| 4 large cloves | garlic, very finely chopped |
| 1 | mild red chilli, deseeded and very finely chopped |
| ⅛ tsp | fine salt |
| 2 Tbsp | rose harissa |
| 2 tsp | tomato purée/paste |
| 100g | very ripe, sweet mango flesh, peeled and chopped into 1cm cubes |
| 2 tsp | lemon juice |
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 220°C fan/240°C.
- Separate the cabbage leaves to get 400g of the brightest green leaves (save the rest for another recipe). Cut the leaves in half along the ribs, then cut in half again. Put them into a large bowl with the flaked salt and oil and massage together.
- Transfer to a large, flat tray and spread out as much as possible – it's fine if some leaves overlap, as they'll shrink. Roast for 12 minutes, tossing the leaves halfway, until the edges are beginning to brown and crisp up.
- To make the sauce, put the oil, garlic, chilli and fine salt into a large sauté pan and place on a medium-low heat. Gently fry for 6–7 minutes, stirring often, until the garlic is very soft. You don't want the garlic to brown, so turn the heat down if necessary.
- Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the harissa and tomato purée/paste until combined, then stir in the mango and lemon juice.
- Spoon the sauce on to a platter and top with the roasted cabbage leaves. Squeeze over some lemon juice, then top with the jalapeño and herbs.
- Serve warm with yoghurt on the side, if you like.
- Get ahead The mango and harissa sauce will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days, after which the mango might start to get a little fizzy and funky (which actually tastes quite nice).
Get ahead: The mango and harissa sauce will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days, after which the mango might start to get a little fizzy and funky (which actually tastes quite nice).
Edited extract from Mezcla by Ixta Belfrage. Published by Ebury Press. RRP $65
