Now before you assume that Orleans County residents are scooping up rabid raccoons and baking them with some onions and cheese, let me assure you that we are not. In Lorraine’s Roadkill Cabbage Casserole, we are hunting at bridges and bumps in the road for cabbages that have fallen off the many cabbage trucks that haul their crops on our country roads. The fun is in the stalking of the cabbage trucks and the bounty that spills from the top when there is a particularly rough patch of road that the truck travels down. One summer, Lorraine had so many county friends finding cabbages and rolling them down her driveway that she had to start giving them away! I’ve taken a few liberties with her recipe, trying to incorporate her Polish roots, but it turned out mighty fine! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

¾ lb. of Polish Sausage
1 lb. 90/10 ground beef
I large cabbage – Roughly Chopped
I red pepper – diced
I large yellow onion – diced
2 cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
3/4 cup of uncooked Texmati rice – cooked according to packaging
2 cups of marinara sauce
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
2 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning

Preheat oven to 350’. Put a few generous swirls of Olive Oil in a large pan and sauté cabbage. Salt and pepper lightly. Set aside. Uncase the Polish sausage, crumble, and start browning for about three minutes. Add beef, red pepper and onion. After the sausage and beef are cooked through, add tomatoes, rice, and Italian seasonings. Grease a large casserole dish and layer the cabbage, then beef, sausage, rice, tomato mixture. Layer until you are out of ingredients. Top with marinara. Bake at 350’ for 45 minutes. Serves 8.