Rapini Rotini

Sunday 3 May

As we looked over the first green things coming up in the garden, Holt pointed out the radicchio, the puntarelle, and the arugula. "That's not arugula," said Barbara. We were going to call poison control, but Holt had nibbled on it and survived, so we let it be. Later she took a closer look, and after an internet image search, the mystery plant turned out to be - broccoli raab/rapini. Why this popped up in the patch where chard and turnips were supposed to be wintering, we'll never know, but it's all brassica, I guess.

Never ones to let a useful weed go to waste, we harvested the 6 or 7 plants and picked all leaves and buds off the stems (don't let anybody fool you, those tough stems are NOT edible). Then, while the pasta water boiled, we treated them like Chinese greens but with Italian flavors: heated olive oil in the pan and broke up 3-4 anchovy fillets in it, added some chopped garlic, stir-fried the buds first, and then the rough-chopped leaves; then some chicken broth in the pan, and cover to steam until tender. When it was done, we tossed the greens with the pasta (rotini, because you want a shape that will hold the greens apart rather than let it fall into a clump) and showered with lots of grated romano.