MENU

Where to eat and drink
back

Capuzi garbi

(A kind of white sauerkraut)

Capuzi garbi is the most typical side dish of Trieste's cuisine.
As well as a side dish for pork, it is the key ingredient of jota, the quintessential Trieste soup.
Capuzi garbi
Pickling the cabbage is a laborious, ancient and somewhat "fragrant" process, thought to date back to Late Roman or Medieval times as a means of preserving vegetables. But take heart, there are convenient jars of ready-made sauerkraut available in the supermarkets.

Ingredients
1 kg of white cabbage
1 tbsp of coarse salt
1/2 tbsp of sugar
Some bay leaves
100 ml of water

Cut the cabbage into strips, mix it with salt, sugar and bay leaves, and put it into a container.
Press the cabbage firmly and add water.
Close the container and put a heavy weight on top. Store it at a temperature of 20°C to start fermentation.

Open after a couple of days and remove the foam produced by fermentation, then mix thoroughly, cover, and repeat the operation over the following days.
The cabbage will be ready when there is no more foam.

The cabbage can then be used for other recipes such as jota, or cooked in a "tecia" (a traditional cast iron pan).