Paprika Cabbage

It's really good after a wet cold bike ride

When I lived in New York City, I had a really great Spanish provisions shop near me. This is where I had pimenton or what I like to call real paprika for the first time. It’s a little spicy and much more deeply smoky than “smoked paprika”. Now, I’m seeing it in regular stores, so I picked it up and it was like a hug from an old friend, so so good.

Like Balsamic, Champagne and Parmigiano this stuff is protected by the (Spanish) government. Does that make it delicious? no, it doesn’t, but it protects the taste of the real thing, and in this case it is also very delicious. Dig around for some “pimenton de la vera” I got the spicy one (I’d say it has 1/3 the punch of cayenne) but they make a mild one as well. The color is an amazing deep red, look at this iPhone shot:

This dish comes together in twenty minutes or so, reheats so well, and will be in my autumn recipe rotation for quite some time.