Our neighbor Armando took Art with him to his orto today, and Art returned with a boatload of spinach and rape. I guess I’ll make a ricotta/spinach/egg/cheese mixture for cannelloni, but I’m at a complete loss about the rape. As best I can figure it’s a bitter sort of green….sort of like a turnip green without the turnip. Any suggestion?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Barbara (and Art),

I cut it into ribboons about an inch to 1-1/2 inches wide, thinner as you move down to the more tough stems.

I like to blanch it for a few minutes in boiling salted water to get rid of the most agressive bittter flavor. Then I shock it in cold water. After, I saute it in garlic and olive oil. After 3-4 minutes add water or stock (about 1/4 cup to a large bunch of Rapini), cover, lower heat to very low and steam till done. It will be toothy in about 5 minutes, and mushy in 15 to 20. Check to see if you need to add more water or stock as it steams.

Wow-- this topic kind of took me aback!

I understand now of course... especially since I realize it is on the food and drink board.

Kathy

I do what Dean does (though sometimes I don't bother blanching it).

I'll also brown some crumbled sausage in a skillet, remove it and saute the rape, some sliced garlic and crushed red pepper (and maybe a bit of salt). When the moisture from the greens evaporates (you know the moisture left over from washing them), I'll add a some broth (chicken or vegetable), and let it cook for a few. Then I toss it with some pasta (usually a short pasta or orrecchiete or shells). Save some of the pasta water in case you need to loosen the sauce up.

We were in a restaurant on Saturday night that made a similar dish, though more saucy than mine and with cannelini beans added it. I may try this next time.

Here's a picture....

Barb, it is broccoli without alot of the broccoli. ANd softer leaves. Remove any tough stems. If you just treat it like spinach (you can do a quick blanch with a cold water shock if you like), you can sautee it in garlic and olive oil. I add course salt and some pepper. Of course you can add some balsalmico and reduce it if you like.

Another idea is after it has been sauteed in the olive oil and garlic, add a half cup of bread crumbs and half cup of grated parmasean.

Very rich in B vitamins...it is a gem!!

Buon Appitito.

The Umbrians call them Rapi, southern Italians call them Cime di Rapa (they have to have the flowers), some call them Rapini and I am sure Alice know who calls what and when.

In any case: blanch 5 min in boiling hot water as decribed by Dean. Meanwhile soften a thinly chopped onion in olive oil, add the roughly chopped, squeezed Rapi, add one-2 anchovy fillets, a pressed garlic clove, a handful of pre-soaked rainsins and a handful of pine nuts. Cook on low heat for another 5-10 min, until the stems are tender but the leaves are not overcooked. Serve on crostini or as a side vegetable.

I do a crostini with it, too. I saute a clove of minced garlic in olive oil, then add the rapini/rape/cime di rapa which I've coarsely chopped, along with a bit of salt and pepper, and saute it til it's wilted. Then a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar to finish it off. Top the toasted crostini with the rape and a grating of parmigiano.

Is this the same rape that you get rape seed oil from? I remember (I think) seeing lots of yellow flowering rape fields in Scandinavia in the 70s. I thought they were just used as a margarine or cooking oil.

This one is toughy for me as I have NEVER liked it and I have a feeling it is the way my dad prepared it. It used to really stink up the house when I was a kid and it was the ONLY vegetable I was excused from eating as my dislike for it was that severe.

I am still not fond of it, but I like the idea of blanching it for 5 minutes to remove the bitterness which is a reason that may turn me off. Oddly enough, broccoli is my favorite vegetable, so maybe it needs to be done differently as some of you suggested.

I will have to try it again. My father would be shocked to see me eating it!!!

Doug

HI John,

No, rapeseed, which is used to make canola oil, comes from the rapeseed plant, which produces a very bright yellow flower in the late spring. You can see fields of these flowers throughout Europe, they look like a carpet of fluorescent yellow carpet (I think I have a pic of my neighbor's rapeseed field on my website, on the reservations page, as a reference). Yes, they are all over Sandinavia as well, in early June.

This plant is broccoli rape (pronounced rah- pa)
and is a very leafy plant with just a few little buds resembling broccoli in the middle.


Diana

Vegetable nomenclature is a veritable minefield! From a British English perspective, I'd call these turnip greens - I've only seen 'Broccoli Rabe' in US English sources. Actually, they're very hard to find in England, unless you grow your own - we first cooked them when self-catering in Portugal, about 15 years ago.

As far as I can tell from my various Italian cookbooks, the terms broccoli/brocoletti/cime di rapa are used fairly interchangeably, depending on region/family preference/whatever. But what about friarielli? Antonio Carluccio says this is just what southerners call what we're discussing here; Alice seems to imply, in the parallel discussion over at Expats that they might be a bit different.

And what are they doing around at this time of year? I'd have thought they were more of a spring thing... Anyway, I'll be shopping at Ostuni's vegetable stalls in just under a fortnight's time (whee!!): will I still find friarielli/cime/rapini?? Well, if I do, I certainly know how to cook them now

Jonathan

Sautee in EV and garlic and serve on a porchetta sandwich.

in Sicily they even use the term broccoli for cauliflower!

In Rome the green "fractal" cauliflower is called broccoli too.

quote:

Sautee in EV and garlic and serve on a porchetta sandwich.

Oh, my mouth is watering at the thought!

We're getting bushels of wild chicory from the meadows now...and I make it the same way. DELICIOUS!

Here in New Jersey it is always called broccoli rabe (pronounced "robby"), and it is very popular because we have so many Italian-Americans living here. It's always in the grocery store and you also find it it every Italian deli, usually simply sauteed in garlic, or broken down completely to make a garlicky pasta sauce, most commonly served with shells and lots of grated cheese.

I like adding a bit of anchovy to the saute. My husband won't eat broccoli, but he'll eat a ton of broccoli rabe.

I love Rape (although I always call it Rapini). I usually prepare the same way the others have already mentioned. But if I am serving it to someone who hasn't had it, I sometimes do a mellower version by using half brocolli, half rapini. Even fussy eaters adore it.

-Krista

quote:

Originally posted by Sopranolands:
Here in New Jersey it is always called broccoli rabe (pronounced "robby"), and it is very popular because we have so many Italian-Americans living here.

My family, New Jerseyans from Naples and Calabria, mispronounces most Italian words, dropping the last vowel, so it's pronounced "robb".