While we know exactly what to do with eggs or zucchini (got some of that, too!), when we get a crate of this, we are at a bit of a loss!
First task -- what, exactly, is this? According to Ferruccio, they are called catalogna & barba-something. An Italian friend of mine from the city tells me that catalogna is dialect (not so sure after a Google search) and that these are actually cicoria, but if she were to ask for them at the produce counter, she would ask for erbette.
Whew! This Italian language is intense, isn't it?
Wash. (lots of ladybugs on those leaves)
How to prepare, according to the locals: Boil. Flavor with olive oil and salt. Serve. (The city friend sautes hers with a bit of pancetta for flavor after the boiling. Yep, all is good with a bit of bacon.)
While we welcome all of the garden gifts, we are a bit relieved that we are not given a wheelbarrow's worth to deal with, as was our neighbor Rosie.Grazie Mirella & Ferruccio.
5 comments:
Better get your own wheelbarrow, this is just the beginning of the season! You are very lucky to have such nice neighbors. It doesn't look like catalogna to me (a type of cicoria), but you'd know it when you eat them because catalogna is quite bitter, no matter how you cook it. They look like erbette (I always assumed they were "beets", how would you call them in English?). Erbette you use just like spinach, but they have a much milder taste. I actually steam them, so I don't loose all their vitamins/salt minerals etc in the boiling water. They are wonderful in quiche and tortini di verdura!
Too funny. Where we live now "city" (sort of) is much different from where we lived in Sicily, "rural". In Sicily I learned how to do all sorts of garden and homemade stuff, like sun dried tomatoes, etc. One time I asked my neighbor here if she was making her own sauce this year and she looked at me and said, "What do I look like? a contadini?" I guess she thinks of herself as city sophisticate!
Hey, my comment worked! I was having problems the last few days. I had wanted to comment on your travel post, but now I forget what I was going to say!
They look like beet tops to me...delicious when stir fried with garlic, olive oil and pine nuts. Yummie!
But like you I wouldn´t know what to do with a wheelbarrow full of them. ;)
Have a great weekend, Jeannette
City sophisticates these neighbors are not! I can assure you. Beet tops? Yeah, I just don't know about that! Meaning there are beets underneath waiting for harvest? I'll ask. . . but that's not the impression I got. Who knows? At time it can be difficult to communicate with folks who speak a lot of dialect.
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