No such thing as wild broccoli

"Broccoli is a human innovation, a man-made food, and a result of a mutation selected and cultivated by man throughout history. "

Ponder Weasel

We went to the market today to buy up big for tomorrow's dinner party. And whilst buying potatoes and onions from my favourite potato man I noticed bunches of greens that I did not recognise - they looked very much like the ones shown above. So I asked him what it was and he said it was wild broccoli - also known as rabe. He went on to tell me that it had a slightly bitter taste and that you could soften it by mixing it with spinach or some such or stir frying. I was intrigued and bought some for tomorrow. I had vaguely heard that the Italians had something I thought was called rape, so I was sure I could find a recipe.

The really good thing about this blog is that you learn a little something every day - even about things you thought you really knew. And I have learnt (I think) quite a lot about this vegetable. Though I admit to still being a bit confused.

To digress a tiny bit - broccoli itself is a result of careful breeding since the 6th century BC - from wild cabbage plants - brassica oleracea (though I see that on this chart they call it wild mustard). Not genetic modification - just selective breeding to increase the tightness of the flowers - in the case of broccoli. I'm not a huge fan of broccoli itself however pretty it looks, except with orecchiette - an Italian dish. And when I came to look into broccoli rabe I found that it is really the Italians who do it proud. What I bought most resembles the original plant - hence the 'wild' bit of the name I guess.

I have now read quite a lot about it and I have to say I am still a little confused and wonder whether indeed there are two, maybe three different kinds of rabe. The one at the top of the page - like the one I bought today and the one like the picture on the right which is smaller, darker, with more of a flowering head and not as wild looking might be from two different sources. Because a few articles said that rabe wasn't a broccoli at all but was related to the turnip - and I have to say that one of the Italian names - cime di papa - means turnip tops. Turnips are also a brassica - brassica rapa - which would explain the confusion. Well maybe not as I am now more confused. Then there are mustard greens brassica juncea - and was it a mustard plant or a cabbage plant that was the original ancestor? So all a bit confusing.

One thing seems to be common to all though - the method of cooking and the taste - slightly bitter. Which appeals to me. I didn't buy any spinach but maybe I should look out for some in the supermarket. The general opinion about cooking seems to be to blanch in boiling salted water, and then toss in olive oil with garlic and maybe chilli. So I think that's what I shall try to do. I think I will stick to the leaves mostly and maybe shred them. I'll add a postscript as to how it goes.

In some ways I hope it's not a huge success because it's not something you find very often. Maybe it's something you have to grow yourself. And it's nutritious too - lots of good stuff apart from the obvious fibre.

And in spite of a very large library of cookery books, some of which are specialist vegetable books I could not find a recipe for wild broccoli, rabe, or rapini. What I found was online - though Madhur Jeffrey did have recipes for mustard greens. Same thing as above in fact.

POSTSCRIPT: One of my lovely guests is a very wonderful gardener and she arrived with a huge bag of goodies from her garden - including some kale, some silver beet and what looked remarkably like rabe! How's that for a coincidence. So I hurriedly washed and chopped the kale and silver beet and added it to my rabe. Lots of the recipes I found said that it was good to mix it with other greens so this was a bonus. I think I should have cooked the garlic and chilli flakes a little in the oil before adding the greens, as their taste did not really get through. It was good though - and it all got eaten. I still have half the amount I bought left, and Monika's home-grown rabe, so I might use it to make a spanakopita one day soon. Should be good. She gave me a whole lot of fennel too - that would be good with it too.