It is said that a child from a poor peasant family, seeing his parents always selling capons to the wealthy, complained to his mother about always being unable to enjoy that delicacy himself. The mother, tired of seeing her son sad, came up with “i capù”. She took a nice ball of stuffing with no meat but well-flavoured and wrapped it in a cabbage leaf, boiled it then presented it to her son, who could thus enjoy his “capù” as well.
Thus, Capù are simple cabbage rolls typical of the Bergamo area and the Alps. Those from Parre differ from other varieties, both in the cooking method (they are boiled in veal or beef broth, with a piece of lard or bacon) and in the filling, strictly lean without meat, a characteristic shared with Scarpinòcc. Like the latter, Capù are celebrated with a festival, which has been held between late July and early August for over twenty years.
Basic ingredients for 4 persons (about 20 dumplings)
- 20 g chopped parsley
- 80 g homemade breadcrumbs
- 160 g grated Grana Padano cheese
- 1 egg
- 3 g fine salt
- Cinnamon to taste
- Nutmeg to taste
- Milk as needed
- Savoy cabbage leaves”
Method:
To prepare the filling, proceed with the following operations, respecting the execution methods indicated as follows:
Grate the Grana Padano cheese and crumble the bread. On a work surface, mix the grated cheese and bread with the spices. Melt the butter, adding finely chopped garlic and parsley.
Knead the ingredients from the previous steps, adding milk and eggs until obtaining a soft and homogeneous mixture.
The mixing operations, both manual and mechanical, can be repeated a second time until obtaining a homogeneous dough, with a uniform distribution of the ingredients used. Let the filling mixture rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Boil the inner leaves of the cabbage in salted water for about 8-10 minutes, being careful not to break them. Drain and lay them on a cloth. Take the filling mixture and form balls the size of a walnut, wrapping each ball in a cabbage leaf like a parcel. The Capù should be boiled in plenty of water with a piece of lard and a piece of boiled meat, vegetables and salt for about 30 minutes.
