In a 5 quart saucepan, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. Add the entire head of cabbage in, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove the cabbage from the water and drain in a colander (don’t throw the water away you might need it again). When cool enough to handle, remove the outer leaves of the cabbage until you have 12 leaves. You may have to return the cabbage to the water in order to soften more leaves. Shred the remaining cabbage into short, thin threads and place in a large bowl with the first 12 ingredients (excluding the cabbage leaves). Mix together well with your hands. Do not over mix. You want the mixture to stick together, but not be mush.
Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish and pour the marinara sauce in the bottom of the pan ( I like the plain versions of sauce for this recipe such as a tomato basil variety).
Using a ½ cup measure (a silicone one if you have it), place one cabbage leaf inside the cup cutting away any tough stem that won’t bend. Put a ¼ cup of meat filling inside the cabbage leaf and then wrap the leaf tightly around the filling. Remove the cabbage roll from the cup and place seam side down in the prepared pan. Continue until all of the rolls are finished. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until the meat in the cabbage rolls is cooked through. Serve over egg noodles.
Notes
Tip: This is a labor intensive recipe, but it freezes very well. I always make a triple batch of these and freeze them. Then on the days we have after school activities, I put this dish, frozen, in the oven and it is ready to eat when we get home a couple hours later.