This colorful Red Cabbage Pasta recipe is an easy way to turn a simple vegetable into a vibrant, flavorful meal. The sautéed cabbage, garlic, and feta cheese come together for a savory-sweet balance that's as delicious as it looks. We've found it pairs beautifully with white wine-now featuring two favorite options that highlight the dish's bright flavors.
We originally created this recipe as part of a Wine Pairing Weekend CSA Challenge event in 2022, featuring the Condriesque white wine blend from Dineen Vineyards. (Disclosure: that wine was provided as a complimentary sample from the winery.) In this November 2025 update, we're sharing another delicious white wine pairing idea that also complements the pasta's savory-sweet flavors.
Jump to:
CSA Wine Pairing Challenge
I enjoyed participating in the Wine Pairing Weekend CSA Challenge event back on 2022. Thanks to Camilla for hosting.
We have been doing a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm share the last several years, and really enjoy it. I really leaned into the CSA experience by creating a podcast, Cook Local Eat Local, that was largely built around guests brainstorming about what to do with my latest CSA pickup. [Update: I have since broadend the theme of our podcast to the “Cooking Chat Food & Wine Podcast” where we continue to focus on local food along with other Cooking Chat topics.]
Part of the CSA challenge can be what to do with some of the less common vegetables that land in the share. Hakurei turnips, watermelon radishes and garlic scapes are a few of the new vegetables I’ve met through the CSA. Frequent readers of Cooking Chat might not be surprised to hear I made Garlic Scape Pesto with that veggie!
But today I am featuring a pretty common vegetable in our red cabbage pasta recipe.
While red cabbage is something most of us have probably seen, it presents another challenge. What to do when you have a lot of red cabbage? (or zucchini, green beans, collards, etc.) Participating in a CSA does mean you get the bounty from a local farm – but sometimes it can be a lot to contend with!
What to do with red cabbage
When I get to chopping a good sized cabbage, it becomes apparent to me why cabbage features prominently in many peasant cuisines. A head of cabbage is relatively inexpensive, and provides you with a lot of crunchy nutrition! After chopping the six cups of red cabbage for this past recipe, that still left half of the cabbage.
So finding new ways to prepare red cabbage comes in handy. Of course, red cabbage is great raw. In fact, when I plan to cook some, I always set aside a good portion of sliced cabbage for our son to eat raw (plain!) as he likes it better that way.
In addition to adding red cabbage to a green salad for some variety, I like to use cabbage to make a vinegar based slaw without mayo. A couple of times lately, I have made a spicy slaw to feature in tacos. I’ve loosely followed this recipe from Chili Pepper Madness, but need to credit my #winePW colleague Linda from My Full Wine Glass with getting me thinking about slaw for tacos.
But cooking cabbage softens the texture and mellows the flavor, making it a healthy ingredient to cook with. Green cabbage is pretty mild and benefits from a flavorful sauce like with feature in this Turkey Cabbage Skillet recipe (paired with a Pouilly-Fumé).
Red cabbage, on the other hand, brings more flavor to the dish, and has vibrant colors to showcase. Our red cabbage risotto is a great example of putting the cabbage at the center of the recipe!
We’ve enjoyed that risotto with both Italian red wines and less predictably, Mexican Merlot.
I came across the idea of cooking down red cabbage in a skillet to toss with pasta somewhere along the way several years ago. I adapted that idea one Thanksgiving weekend and served up this Leftover Turkey Linguine with Red Cabbage.
Today we feature our CSA cabbage in this simple vegetarian Red Cabbage Pasta recipe.
What to do with leftovers
Store the leftover red cabbage pasta in an airtight container for 3 to 5 days. Reheat the desired portion in a microwave or on the stove top.
I recent tried freezing a portion in a freezer bag, as I realized we weren’t going to use the leftover pasta before heading out of town. After defrosting the frozen pasta overnight in the refrigerator, I heated the portion for lunch. It was still decent, but not as fresh tasting as the original version or the refrigerated leftovers.
So I would say using the pasta with red cabbage is best used within 3 to 5 days of making it, but it can be frozen if needed.
Wine Pairing Update (2025)
I recently remade this Red Cabbage Pasta recipe, and was looking for a suitable pairing that would work for the pasta that would also complement the Baked Haddock I was making. The fish was mostly for our son, but I planned to have a bit, making it a pescatarian meal this time around.
My first shipment as a Wine Society member had arrived recently, so I reached out to Stephen Nasiatka, founder of StephenUncorked, for pairing suggestions. The lightly oaked Wattle Creek Winery California Chardonnay ($26 SRP, 13.5% ABV) seemed like a good potential match for both the red cabbage pasta and the haddock.
The Wattle Creek Chard choice worked very well! The vibrant Chardonnay matched both the cabbage pasta and the haddock, with notes of lemon and lively acidity. You can email stephen@stephenuncorked.wine to order this wine and other in the Wine Society collection.
So now you have two white wine options to try with this pasta recipe! Other Chardonnays with limited oak, aka “naked Chardonnay” could work in a pinch.
Wine pairing
Wait, we haven’t talked about the original wine pairing yet! And this Wine Pairing Weekend event is at least 50% about the wine, right?
In 2022, I chatted with Marissa Dineen about featuring her Condriesque white blend for one of our summer Wine Pairing Weekend events. Dineen Vineyards is a family-owned winery in Washington’s Yakima Valley. I covered more about the winery here; along with a pairing for our lamb ragu recipe.
Actually, it was more conferring over email related to today’s pairing. But previously I did have a proper chat with Marissa, which you can catch here on this YouTube interview.
The Dineen Vineyards Yakima Valley Condriesque ($27) is a blend of 52% Viogner and 48% Roussanne. The wine is fermented and aged sur lees in 25% new and 75% neutral French oak for 7 months.
On the nose, I get fresh flowers, hibiscus I’d say. On the palate, peach fruit, lemon curd and a bit of minerality, and a pleasant finish.
This is a pretty full bodied white wine, based on Rhone white varietals. This works well for the red cabbage pasta, as the cooked cabbage and feta cheese call for a wine with some substance and a nuanced flavors. I definitely give the pairing a thumbs up!
We have also enjoyed the Condriesque paired with our Ground Turkey Cabbage Stir-fry recipe. More recently, we tested the latest vintage of the Condrieque as a potential Thanksgiving pairing. Read about that in A White Rhône Style Blend for Thanksgiving.
PrintRecipe card
Red Cabbage Pasta
This delicious Red Cabbage Pasta recipe is an easy way to enjoy this nutritious vegetable. Excellent paired with a white wine blend.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 40 mins
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 large onion or 2 small onions, chopped (3 to 4 cups chopped onion)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 cups red cabbage, chopped into thin slices
- ½ cup feta cheese plus additional for serving
- 12 ounces pasta – we prefer long shapes such as linguine or bucatini for this recipe
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet, on medium heat. Next, add the onions, cooking on medium and stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes until the onions have started to soften. Stir in the garlic, cook for another minute.
- Add the cabbage to the skillet, along with the remaining olive oil. Add a pinch of salt. Stir to thoroughly combine the onions and cabbage. Cover the pan, and cook on medium low for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cabbage has softened.
- Begin boiling a pot of water after adding the cabbage. Cook the pasta according to package instructions.
- When the pasta is done cooking, drain and toss immediately with the red cabbage mixture. Stir in the feta cheese and balsamic vinegar, if using. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Plate the pasta and serve, passing additional feta cheese at the table.
Notes
- Long pasta shapes such as linguine or bucatini work best for this recipe.
- You may need to add the cabbage in two batches, stirring half of it in with the onions, then adding the rest and stirring it in. This can help incorporate the cabbage without spilling it over the edges of the pan.
More wine pairings for CSA veggie dishes
Check out what my Wine Pairing Weekend colleagues have paired with CSA veggie recipes!
- A Summer Harvest and A Visit to Santa Ynez Valley's Beautiful Biodynamic Demetria by Wine Predator…Gwendolyn Alley
- CSA-Inspired: Whole Roasted Rockfish with Tomatillo Sauce + Seabold Cellars’ 2021 Siletto Aligoté by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Easy Peasy Pairing with Dracaena Wines Chenin Blanc by The Quirky Cork
- Grilled Artichoke and Marianna Rocim Alentejo by Our Good Life
- Lodi Locavore Living by ENOFYLZ Wine Blog
- Mexican Street Corn and Sausage Salad with a Vino Blanc by A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Red Cabbage Pasta with Condriesque White Wine by Cooking Chat
CAMILLA M MANN
I love this idea. And red cabbage is such a beautiful, delicious, and nutritious addition to dishes. I will have to try your red cabbage risotto one of these days soon.
Cooking Chat
You definitely should, it looks very different than your typical risotto for sure.
Andrea
The wine sounds gorgeous. I am a sucker for these grapes. It’s taken me ages to come around to cabbage but I finally have so this recipe is going in my rotation!
MARTIN D REDMOND
I’m digging the look and sound of your red cabbage pasta David! Thanks for sharing and the pairing idea!
Cooking Chat
Thanks Martin!
Ann
This pasta dish sound divine! A very sophisticated take on pasta. Excited to give it a try! Thanks for the share!
Amy Liu Dong
Definitely looks yummy! Such a unique pasta recipe that everyone would love to try! Plus we can never go wrong with pasta! Pasta is life!