a cabbage is a cabbage - no?

I had a lot of cabbage in my vegetable drawer this week so on Tuesday, I made a cabbage and sausage gratin for supper on Wednesday. Something I could pop into the oven after swimming and heat up in time for supper. It's adapted from this recipe. It was suggested as a side dish to sausages so I added the sausage to the mix to make a complete supper.

And silly me, although the recipe calls for savoy cabbage, I used the head of napa cabbage I had that originally was destined for potstickers but I felt less and less like fiddling with wrappers so made a gratin instead - much more my style.

1 head cabbage, cored and sliced ( see above, I used napa)
1 leek, sliced
3 mild italian sausages, casings removed, crumbled
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c vegetable stock
pepper
grated nutmeg
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 c milk

Topping:
3/4 c bread crumbs
1/2 c grated gruyere cheese
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp thyme

Saute sausage, leek and garlic until the sausage is browned and the leeks are soft. Add cabbage, stokc, pepper and nutmeg and cook covered until the cabbage is wilted, about 15 minutes. Stir in the flour and stir for about 2 minutes. Add milk and bring to a boil, then simmer until thickened, or about 5 minutes. I used milk and a softer cabbage so mine was a bit runny at this point. Pour into a greased baking dish.

Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle over the mixture. I covered with plastic wrap and kept in the fridge until the following day. Then I baked at 400 deg F for about 30 minutes until browned and bubbly. It was yummy and the leftovers were even better heated up. So next time I might bake first before keeping in the fridge for a day or so and then reheating.