Sarmale

This is a Romanian home recipe.
Ingredients for the filling:
-1 cabbage
-200g(7.05 oz) of rice
-1200g(42.33 oz) of onions
-1000g(35.27 oz) of mixed beef and pork minced meat
-2 tablespoons of salt
-1 tablespoon of pepper
-a sprig of parsley
-olive oil
-1 glass of flour
-1 glass of tomato paste

Ingredients for cooking the cabbage:
- water to boil
-2 glasses of white vinegar
-2 tablespoons of salt

Ingredients for the final pot:
- Cooked cabbage
- sprigs of rosemary
- bay leaves
- optional bacon

Preparation:
1) Wash the cabbage and remove the torso in the middle.
2) In a large saucepan, boil water, vinegar and salt. Put the cabbage inside to boil and turn it from time to time. When the cabbage leaves begin to detach, remove them and set aside. Once all the cabbage is soft, about 30 minutes later it is removed from the water.

3) Wash and peel the onion. Put the onions in cold water for 10 minutes, then cut into small pieces and put in the mixer. The chopped onion is fried in plenty of olive oil until the onion is cooked (about 20 minutes).
4) In a bowl, put the mixed beef and pork minced meat, salt, parsley, flour, tomato paste, pepper and the cooked onion. Mix everything.

5) Wash the rice and put it in a bowl and cover it abundantly with boiling water, and let it swell, for about 15 minutes, then let the water drain.
6) In the large bowl with the mixed grind and the rest, add the rice. Mix again.
7) In the cabbage leaf remove the part of the core, the hard part. This hard part cut it into small pieces and put them on the bottom of the pot.
8) Take a cabbage leaf and put a large spoon full of filling approximately inside. Wrap the cabbage leaf around the filling to roulade a rolls.It is important that the roll is tightly closed so that the filling does not come out.

8) In a very large pot, put the hard pieces of cabbage cut into small pieces,  sprigs of rosemary and the bay leaves on the bottom.
9) Place the rolls on top. To make them very tasty, add some pieces of bacon in the middle of the rolls.
10) Cover everything with dried basil, bay leaves and finally with cabbage leaves.
11) Put the pot with the rolls on high heat and cover everything with water. Cover with a lid. When it begins to boil, lower the heat and cook for one hour and forty minutes.

This dish goes very well with polenta and cooking cream.
Buon Appetito!!