Stuffed Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Sauce with homemade tomato paste

👨‍🍳 Method

For the homemade tomato paste ✓ Homemade · or skip – back to store-bought

1. 1
   Wash the tomatoes, remove the cores and quarter each tomato.

   KnifeCutting board
2. 2
   Put the tomatoes, the salt and half of the olive oil in a wide pot, cover and cook over medium heat about 20 minutes, until the tomatoes soften and release their liquid.

   StoveWide, shallow pot
3. 3
   Pass the tomatoes and their liquid through a food mill or sieve and return the purée to the pot: the skins and seeds stay behind.

   Food millorFine sieve
4. 4
   Cook uncovered about an hour at a lively simmer, stirring now and then, until the purée reduces by half.

   StoveWooden spoon

   💡The paste burns easily as it dries: stir and scrape the bottom and edges, and once it is thick, don't walk away.
5. 5
   Preheat the oven to 110°C (230°F).

   Oven

   💡Put things in the oven only once it's reached temperature, after the heating light has gone off: an oven that hasn't reached temperature changes baking times, and the bake burns outside or stays underbaked.
6. 6
   Grease a wide baking dish with the rest of the olive oil and pour in the purée in a thin layer. Dry in the oven about 3 hours, stirring and scraping the edges every 30 minutes, until the paste is thick, sticky and brick red.

   OvenBaking sheetSilicone spatula
7. 7
   Let the paste cool.

   Jar

For the Meatball mix

1. 8
   Mix the ground meat with the onion, cumin, paprika, rice, salt and black pepper until evenly combined.

To assemble

1. 9
   Put the whole cabbage into a pot of boiling water, cook about 10 minutes and peel off the leaves one by one as they soften. Let cool.

   StoveWide, shallow potTongs
2. 10
   Remove the tough vein from each leaf.

   KnifeCutting board
3. 11
   Place a little of the mixture in the center of each leaf, fold in both sides and roll up.
4. 12
   Arrange the rolls tightly in a wide pot, seam side down.

   Wide, shallow pot
5. 13
   Mix the tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, lemon juice and oil and pour over the rolls.
6. 14
   Add the water until it covers the rolls partly.
7. 15
   Bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, cover and simmer 90 minutes, until the rice and meat are done.

   StoveLid

   💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.