Broccoli Rabe

I’ve always had a thing for Italian food, never so much for Italian-American food. I don’t know why. But there are notable exceptions, and this certainly is one of them. Added to the repertoire late in the game, I nonetheless often feel like I just can’t get enough of it – the perfect balance of caramelized garlic, red pepper flakes, the sweetness of the olive oil, and the bitterness of the leaves… It’s just a classic trifecta of sweet, bitter, and piquante. Plus, broccoli rabe seems to be the ideal ratio of leaf to tender stem to meaty little core. And you can enjoy this piping hot (like I like to) or room temperature (which I also love) or cold right out of the fridge the next day (which I sometimes don’t even wait for). By the way, sometimes you see rabe in the market which has started to flower – which by all standards means it’s older than it should be, but I love it. One generally doesn’t recommend eating leafy plants at the point that they have begun to flower, since surely their younger days when they are swollen with possibility and tenderness have passed them by and they are now into their more fibrous, stringy dotage, as they devote all their energy not to leaf and stem but to the flowering of their sexual organs. Anyway, I find those little yellow buds delicious.

As always, when looking for a high heat sauté on greens like this, blanch them first, dummy.

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 bunches of broccoli rabe
• 5 cloves of garlic, peeled whole and sliced lengthwise, thin
• Salt and pepper
• 1 TBS or more red pepper flakes

Directions:

Fill a large pot with water and place on high heat. While it’s coming to a boil, trim the ends of the stems from the rabe, plunge several times into a large bowl of cold water, remove to a colander, check for sand and dirt in the bottom of the bowl, and repeat as many times as necessary. I’m sure there’s more information about how to prep greens elsewhere in this collection, like here, or here, but usually you don’t have to go as crazy with rabe as you do with spinach or kale or chard or other leafy greens. I don’t know why – perhaps the part you eat is not as close to the ground. But either way, you want to make sure that the odd lady bug or slug is loosened, as is any sand, grit, or dirt that are all a natural consequence of your food growing in the ground rather than being extruded from a protein homogenizer on the algae-growing planet of XT7-9.

Aside from that, these greens were touched by whomever picked them, wiped his nose with his hand, then picked another; ditto for whomever packed them; they fell out of the box and onto the truck floor on the way to the market; someone else picked them up and put them back in a box on the loading dock behind the market; someone inside the store sprayed them down and put them in another container; someone else placed them with their bare hands on the shelf; and untold unwashed assholes came through and picked them up off the shelf while they decided whether or not to buy them or head over to the prepared foods section instead and just get them pre-cooked there, opted for the latter, placed them back on the shelf poorly, at which point they rolled off, hit the dirty rug that is for some reason kept in the produce section, rolled off that and sat on the concrete for a few minutes until the guy that put them on the shelf in the first place stopped scratching his calf under his jeans, pulled his sock up, came back over, picked them up yet again, and replaced them on the shelf just before you came in and put them in your cart. Whatever happens after that is on you, but for chrissakes, wash your food before you cook it and eat it. I’m not going to get into the cross-contamination in packing plants, which is how you end up with spinach that gives you ecoli or tomatoes with salmonella – things that really only propogate in animal feces and have no business ever being associated with a leafy green.

Once you’ve finished with all that, slice off the root end of each clove of garlic, peel them, and slice lengthwise, just about as thin as you can manage. Discard that bitter green germ in the middle if they have them.

When the water has come to a boil, salt it generously and add the greens. Plunge them down with a strainer or tongs to completely submerge. Return to a boil as quickly as possible and cook for 1-2 minutes, until the color has brightened and the stems are tender but still have a firm bite to them. Never walk away from a blanch, dummy. Once the water has returned to a boil I am tasting stems almost constantly, so as not to overcook it. And by the way, in addition to doing all the things a blanch does to help you cook greens like this at high heat, you’re simultaneously taking care of all the potentialities covered a couple paragraphs above this.

When they are done, drain and shock in an ice bath (ideally) or run under cold water until they have cooled. Place (or keep) in a colander and shake to remove as much excess water as possible. The shocking is an important step especially if you’re not going to cook them right away – but getting them as dry as possible, short of drying them between tea towels, is also quite important. You do NOT want his to be a liquid-y dish, and the high heat will help with that, but not adding a ton of additional water from your tap would also be a good start, dummy. Don’t do that or ti spacco la faccia.

OK, so place the olive oil in a large sauté pan and turn on the high heat. Add salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. When things are really hot and almost smoking, add the garlic and stir constantly for about 30 seconds. It should begin to brown within 10 seconds, depending on how thin you’ve managed to slice it.

Add the broccoli rabe and toss immediately to thoroughly coat with oil. Cook at high heat, tossing frequently, for another 3-5 minutes, until the stems are tender and have taken on some of garlicky, hot oil character. If you overcook or have too much moisture in the pan, the wonderful heads will disintegrate and ti spacco la faccia.

As noted above, serve and enjoy immediately, later, or much later.