exposure by Cherie LangloisMy new Italian - diverseness broccoli did n’t produce any heads .
Whenever we return froma trip somewhere , my family and I come home with two form of token : the substantial , hold - in - your - hand sort that you blame up along the way ( from milled stones gain for devoid on a beach in Wales to that expensive Mickey sweatshirt grease one’s palms from a Disneyland tourist store ) and the intangible form . souvenir in the latter category have include dissimilar path of interact with hoi polloi ( say , taking time for civil salutation during hurried dealing , as is customary in France ) ; newfangled passions ( such as for learning Spanish or for Greek culinary art ) ; and theme for Modern food plants to try uprise on our Falco subbuteo farm .
Fragrant oregano steep a hike on the Greek island of Crete ; fresh cilantro disperse over Costa Rican gallo pinto ; sweet-flavored Mirabelle plum pass out over while picnic in a Paris ballpark . These are a few of the eatable “ souvenirs ” that now grow on our farm , bringing lovely remembering back with each bite .
Keen to adjudicate Italian varieties after devouring so many fantastic veg on our trip to Italy two summers ago , we enjoin some Italian seeds fromGourmet Seed Internationalthis year . One of these was a type of lush and leafy broccoli calledSpigariello . From the verbal description , I thought it would produce tiny heads to harvest . Well , the semen I planted did indeed develop into magniloquent , lushly leave alone plants , but I waited and waited — and there was no sign of any Brassica oleracea italica top dog , even tiny I .
at long last , after an on-line lookup , I discovered what the problem was : This unearthly broccoli variety is actually grown for itsleaves , not the head ( and people who had grown it cover few , if any , of the latter ) . Kind of embarrassed , I grabbed scissor grip and snipped off a bunch of leaves . Eaten unsanded , they remind me more of kale than broccoli , so I gave them my received sugar treatment : sautéing the chopped leaves with minced ail in olive oil until slightly tender , then add together a few dab of teriyaki sauce during the last few moment of preparation . Delicious !
P.S. I think ourturkeyslike this unusual and fertile broccoli even more than we do . When our first rime get in this weekend , I gathered the last succulent younger leaves and tossed the still - leafy stalk to our flock . The turkeys went into a marauder - like alimentation frenzy , devouring every last leaf within proceedings . Seriously , they scare off me sometimes .
~Cherie
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