I’ll be first to admit that I look to restaurants for menu inspiration in my own kitchen. Broccoli Caesar Kimchi Salad from Vegan Pizzaland, I’m looking at you. And my friend Andrew, to whom I totally owe the recipe for the Kale Caesar Salad from Paul and Elizabeth’s. I served a clone of that for the second night of RoshHashanah this year, down to the balsamic red onions and polenta croutons.

We’re walking distance to the Florence Pie Bar, which is at once a blessing and a curse. Last month, my husband, as is his wont when he bikes downtown for errands, brought me home one of their small savory galettes: a wreath of free-form pie dough filled with a lemony caramelized green cabbage, finished with capers. It was so good it bore repeating — but bigger. And so in late December I made this much larger version as part of a big meal for family visiting from Washington, D.C.

The filling and the dough can both be made in advance and stored in the fridge until you’re ready to bake. Trust me when I say you’ll need to slowly cook your cabbage for a good chunk of time — about two hours. The dough is my favorite go-to pie or galette crust by Jacques Pepin. It takes 15 seconds to prepare in a food processor.

Melted cabbage filling

Ingredients:

One head small to medium-sized green cabbage, halved and sliced thin, about a quarter-inch thick

One medium-to-large yellow onion, halved and sliced into half moons

2 cloves of garlic, sliced thin (1/4 inch)

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Extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

Juice of half a lemon

2 teaspoons capers, for garnish

Directions:

Heat a 2-to-4 quart Dutch oven and cover with two tablespoons of olive oil. When that is heated, add the pile of sliced onion and cook on a low to medium flame for 20 minutes. The onions will loosen and turn translucent then yellow, and eventually deep tan. Stir frequently to avoid burning the pot. Be ready to add a teaspoon or two of water if the onions start to stick to the bottom.

When the onion is soft and brown, add a few handfuls of the sliced cabbage to the onions, add a pinch of salt and half the garlic, and stir to make sure everything is coated. Let that cook on a medium-to-low flame, like the onion, for about 15 minutes.

When the cabbage is cooked down by half, add in the rest of the cabbage, another pinch of salt and the rest of the garlic. Stir every few minutes and when a fond (a brown coating) appears on the bottom of your pot, add about a tablespoon of water to scrape up the fond and stir it back into the cabbage. All told, this will take about two hours.

When the cabbage has turned a golden brown, double check for salt. Gently squeeze juice from one half of the lemon, tasting between each new squeeze. I used about half a lemon to find the taste I was searching for: a tart note after the deep, buttery caramel of the cabbage.

The galette dough

Because the pastry is free-form, it can be rolled into a circle or rectangle. Don’t worry if it’s not perfectly shaped; there’s a rustic quality to this dish which makes an uneven galette even more charming. Pepin suggests serving this as a buffet offering, slicing it into pizza-style slices to be eaten standing up.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/3 cup ice water

Directions:

In a food processor, combine the flour with the salt and butter and process for about 5 seconds. Sprinkle the ice water over the flour mixture and process until the pastry just begins to come together, about 10 seconds; you should still be able to see small pieces of butter in it. Transfer the pastry to a work surface, gather it together and pat into a disk. Use right away, or wrap in plastic or wax paper and refrigerate until chilled.

When it is time to assemble the galette, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the pastry to a 12-by-14-inch rectangle and transfer to a large rimmed baking sheet. Spread the lemony caramelized cabbage, starting in the center and evenly dispersing it. Fold the pastry edge up and over the cabbage to create a 1-inch border.

Sprinkle the two teaspoons of capers evenly throughout the cabbage.

Bake the galette for about 1 hour, until the pastry is nicely browned and crisp. Transfer the pan to a rack and let the galette cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Molly Parr lives in Florence with her husband and two young daughters. She’s been writing her food blog, Cheap Beets, since 2010. Send questions or comments to molly.parr@gmail.com.