The Curse of the Everlasting Cabbage...Musings on Minestrone

It's a bit unfair to call it a curse, actually, and it's not quite everlasting, but...
I bought a cabbage when I did a big supermarket shop last week (normally I buy most of my veg in a local greengrocer, but when I'm doing a supermarket shop I'll top up there), and I hadn't quite realised how big it was.
We had a quarter that night in the form of Gujerati Style Cabbage and Carrots as our main dish, with a small amount of leftover lamb curry, and naan bread. We had a quarter last night  just as plain boiled cabbage. A quarter went into this big pot of minestrone which was our lunch today and will do two more meals!

And that still leaves a quarter - I think I'll try an Indian recipe for cabbage and peas early next week.

The last minestrone we had was a vegetarian version; today I used a different one and added a small amount of pancetta which added just the right amount of smoky richness which I had missed from the vegetarian version, nice as it was. Trust C to spot the difference straight away and ask what it was. Since he also didn't believe that cabbage was a standard ingredient, it was out with Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking  (one recipe, no bacon of any sort, cabbage) and Elizabeth David's Italian Food (three recipes for what I would consider "classic" minestrone, all with cabbage, all with some form of bacon). After his follow-up reading I'd like to think he now knows that parmesan is also a standard ingredient, but I know he'll reject it if I offer it grated on top the next time we have it. Since I intend making a parmesan and rosemary focaccia, if he doesn't get it one way he'll get it another.

It was not so windy today, but still wet and grey and gloomy. I didn't even bother taking a camera when I walked down to the vegetable shop, but I did try a new recipe for gingerbread with orange juice. It's just afternoon coffee time now, so I'll see how it turned out.