Sustainable Eating - From Dirt to Table

Last night, the temperature dropped to the upper 30's.  It was time to pull out and recover whatever was left in the vegetable garden.  The only vegetables left were broccoli di rape (rapini).  It was quite chilly this morning, so I pulled up everything, broccoli and leaves.  I figured once inside I would do the cleaning.  Thank goodness for my basement kitchen.

Broccoli and oak leaves










It took me over an hour to clean them.  I only took the little broccoli in the center and disregarded the rest.
After washing them thoroughly, I partially cooked them in salted water, about 10 minutes, to remove some of the bitterness.

Cooking broccoli in water

Home grown broccoli ready to be served
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Broccoli di Rape (2 bunches if store bought)

In a pan saute' few cloves of chopped garlic in a 1/3 cup of olive oil, add few hot dry peppers (sweet if preferred), salt and pepper to taste  Add pre-boiled rapini and cook few more minutes.  Simple, delicious and healthy.