Jordan and I had to travel to Windsor, Ontario, my old stomping grounds, to finally get an education in broccoli rabe.

For months, I have been noticing broccoli rabe listed in the ingredients for a variety of dishes found in my favourite cooking magazines. At first, I naively thought that in an attempt to glamorous a familiar old vegetable and make it appear more continental, someone had decided to dress-up broccoli.  Rabe looks like broccoli in the photos and is used like broccoli; as a vegetable side-dish or more often tossed into a pasta dish. It is even listed in units of “a one-lb bunch.” Why was it suddenly cropping up all over the place under an assumed name? Because it is different than broccoli.

At first glance, it may appear somewhat like a sickly broccoli, but on closer look, more differences can be noted. The stems are longer and thinner, there are many leaves surrounding the florets, and the florets themselves are quite small. In fact, this vegetable is usually grouped with the greens such as spinach, kale, bok choy (to which it is also a relative) and escarole. Rabe can be found year round, but is more abundant in the spring and summer. It is commonly found in Italian grocery stores, but is slowly making its way into more Canadian produce sections.

Broccoli rabe (pronounced “ rahb”,not rhyming with “babe”), a.k.a. rapini, broccoli raab, broccoletti di rape, and broccoletto is, like broccoli, related to the cabbage, turnip and cauliflower families. The name comes from Latin and literally means “flowering tops of turnips.” Like broccoli, it is a good source of vitamin C and beta-carotene. Unlike broccoli, it has a pungent-bitter flavour, which has made it unpopular in North America until recently.  It has long been a favourite of the Italians, who like their greens on the bitter side. Escarole, another Italian favourite, is an example of this. The Italians often use sautéed rabe in their pasta dishes or as a topping for pizza. Steaming or sautéing will reduce somewhat the bitter flavour, but it is this flavour that adds zip to a recipe.