Q: Check out this crazy vegetable I picked up at the Farmers Market in Little Italy, San Diego this past weekend. It's romanesco broccoli (Roman cauliflower).
I plan on roasting it like I would regular cauliflower, but would also love suggestions on how to prepare this.
Sent by Whitney
Editor: Isn't this an amazing vegetable? It's so gorgeous!
Readers, what else do you like to do with Romanesco broccoli. Anything that preserves its looks well?
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Oh my god that broccoli is CRAZY!
How beautiful and interesting!
I just used one of these recently for a wonderful recipe and it tasted and looked awesome! I somehow separated it into florets and then sliced them. I caramelized some onions with olive oil and salt, then added the romanesco, some chick peas and some fun spices like turmeric and cumin to give it color and flavor. It was so delicious and you could still see the incredible shape of the vegetable! My daughter went nuts for it!
we steamed it lightly and served it with buttered breadcrumbs. it is slightly sweeter than regular cauliflower and looks gorgeous steamed - even brighter chartreuse if you can believe it. i'd make it simple so as not to cover up its beauty.
I like to saute in a bit of butter, herbs, salt pepper with mushrooms (hen of the woods), purple cauliflower, onions, garlic and white wine, that concoction goes really nice with white fish!
My grandmother used to cut it into Christmas trees and serve it steamed with a little olive oil and red chillie flakes and claim it was Christmas trees all decorated with the chilli flakes as ornaments
Yeah Whitney! A shout-out from a fellow Mercato goer!
For your gorgeous broccoli: My boyfriend's family is Scandinavian. They roast whole heads of cauliflower until they're soft, and serve alongside a bechamel/cheese sauce. This is DELICIOUS and would preserve the beautiful patterns. Diners just slice off what they want and drizzle the sauce over it.
I roast this with capers, some sliced pickled red peppers (anything that is a little spicy will do), choppoed garlic and bread crumbs mixed with a little parm and olive oil. SOOOOO good and a perfect snack. It looks fancy so good for guests.
Thank you for all the wonderful ideas! They all sound delicious.
I love the way the Scandinavians roast it whole. What a lovely idea, sunandtea.
And, here's to the Little Italy Mercato!! Holla!
Territorial Seed Co. and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds both sell seeds for growing this broccoli. They suggest using it as you would any other broccoli.
They taste a lot like cauliflower, so I used my two Romanesco broccoli to make luxury cauliflower cheese. Yummy!