Rome’s great greens!
Oh, boy, mama has brought home some of my favorite vegetables, and I understand well how important they are to everyone’s diet just as grass is so important to mine. I wish she’d bring home some of that—she picks in parks and places like that now that we are in a city, but she washes it pretty well and I eat it with pleasure. I mean, maybe doggies have…well…don’t go there.
But the winter greens of Rome are beyond compare: bietolo (chard or tops of beetroot, take your pick), broccoletti (a kind of rape found also in the states on both coasts), spinaci (spinach—young and tender), cicoria (a type of chicory found wild and also domesticated), broccolo Romano (large pointy lime green heads of a broccoli-cauliflower hybrid), plus every kind of lettuce you can imagine plus the famous puntarelle, which are the bottoms of green chicory placed in cold water to crisp and then pushed though a small grid to make the curly-cues I mentioned in a recent blog.
Broccoletti (sometimes tastes like vanilla, mama says)
Puntarelle after leaves are removed and before soaking in cold water and then being pushed through a screen
In mama’s book, Rome, At Home, she mentions the good health of the Italians in winter and that it is due to these amazing greens that everyone eats as contorni, or side dishes, along with pasta or meats. Mama loves to sauté them in olive oil with a bit of fresh garlic and a small dried hot pepper, crushed, until they are almost crispy and then serves them with lemon slices. I happen to know that she sometimes adds a little handful of biscotti crumbs to liven up the mix.
As for salad greens, there is everything from mesclun, gallinella (called mache in France), arugula, baby red radicchio and baby lettuces to large heads of butter lettuce, frisée and Romano, the lettuce so perfect for a Caesar salad.
In winter, the Romans do not lack vitamins! But mama has also noticed that they haven’t yet taken up all of the health habits of the USA—many still cough and sneeze all over their neighbors without covering their mouths, but what the heck.
With all of these delectable healthful greens a ammunition, viruses and germs had better beware.
I’m heading out to munch on my “salad” right now!!!
Thank you, www.dogscatsandpets.co.uk
The Ape says all that greenery looks like taste heaven, but I say blecccchhh, apart from your Oat Grass Loulou, I’d share a pot with you any time baby!
Luff
Mungo
PS: We sometimes get that fractal-ish Broccolo Romano in the UK, the ape has bought it and steamed it in the past and says it was great. But she bought some last year and it just would not cook at all. It stayed hard as hammers. Was it too young when picked? The Ape is flummoxed
Bad supplier. Too long on the vine, I’d say. Mama gets it from producers near here who bring everything in pretty fresh. Also has to be in season, really, as do so many things that are tender.
Hmmm, tasty greens to stir the heart. Or is that to stir the pot?
I think it’s the latter one! Or just stir ALOT!