Saturday, March 17, 2012

Real Rapini on Rotini


Friday March 16
Back in 2009we couldn't figure out why rapini were coming up in the space where some turnips had overwintered.  Today as Barbara was out in the garden planting peas and enjoying the 70º weather, she found out why.  Our turnip patch was producing rapini shoots, and it was definitely the turnips doing it.  Turns out there's a reason that it's called "rapini" - Italian for "little turnips." But as we said then, it's all brassica.

We picked fifteen stalks, and cooked them more or less the way we did in 2009, but using just a dribble of white wine rather than broth, and with the addition of some red pepper flakes.  It didn't take more than 10 minutes for the rapini to be tender, though like all such greens, a giant panful of leaves and buds cooks down to just enough to make a decent topping for the pasta.

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