This week we ’ll reap the first yellow broccoli in our garden . This is a fairly unusual vegetable and seems to be turn mostly here in Liguria .
This variety is not the similarly chartreuse - colored Romanesco Brassica oleracea italica that has more angular gibbousness nor is it the Brassica oleracea italica - cauliflower cross called broccaflower , which is the same brilliant colour but with cauliflower style flesh .
This plant we are growing is a even broccoli , call Broccolo di Albenga . It first come in from the river valley near Albenga , which is the large prostrate area in Liguria . Ha ! The whole river valley plain near Albenga is less than 40 straight mi , but here in Liguria , that ’s an enormous , 2-dimensional domain .
There is also a purple broccoli , but that ’s mostly grow in the S , like Sicily . I must note that there is a comely amount of inaccurate information on the web , and I never found a non - Italian website that mentioned Broccolo di Albenga . I did find a number of sites that call broccaflower and Romanesco broccoli the same matter , which is obviously not true .
Broccoli is count to have been rise first in Italy and the Romans were eat broccoli means before anybody in Europe or Asia discovered this veggie .
Italians have a trend to spread out their crops wherever they travel , and it was Italian grower in California in the other twentieth hundred who guide the way in introducing this veggie to American menus .
In the Italian language , “ brocco ” means sprout , and broccoli mean a crew of little branches . The cultivated plant was modernise from wild mustard plant life . I eat a whole lot of wild Indian mustard buds when I ’m out hiking , and it is one of my preferent wild foods .
Brassica oleracea italica rabe , or rabe , is actually a type of white turnip , and is pretty like to the wild Indian mustard buds . Rabe is a common oblation in the vegetable markets here .
Actually , everything is not perfect in the broccoli patch . I had think I had bought regular Brassica oleracea italica for some of these plants that turned out to be yellow broccoli .
In addition , the plant are n’t growing as large as I would have like , and are mostly small and only about half the desired sizing . I did n’t plant in August like some of my neighbor , but waited until October .
It ’s also been a notably cold and mirky winter , so the plant have n’t had as much cheerfulness as usual . We ’ll use up the first swelled buds now and then reap several more crops of the subaltern shoots that will keep coming for several calendar month .
The bottom line is that this yellow Brassica oleracea italica is expectant steamed , in casseroles , in soups and most optimally in pasta beauty . My wife makes a pasta with a soft stracchino cheese , broccoli , alimentary paste and a few walnuts . A really brilliant bag , and I intend that ’s what we ’re having for dejeuner today ! Yummy !
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