Brassica oleracea.
Not really a broccoli, despite its English name and visual resemblance — rapini is in fact a variety cultivated for the leaves and flower buds of a plant related to the turnip. Botanically, it belongs to the species Brassica rapa (alongside turnip, bok choy, mizuna, Chinese cabbage), and NOT to Brassica oleracea (which groups true broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower). This kinship with the turnip explains its unique flavour: bitter, biting, lightly mustardy, with a powerful vegetal character that bears no resemblance to the bland sweetness of modern broccoli. It is precisely this bitterness that makes it the star of the peasant cooking of southern Italy — in Naples, in Bari, throughout the Puglia region, rapini is as essential as tomatoes; and the Puglian signature dish, orecchiette con cime di rapa (orecchiette pasta with rapini leaves, garlic, anchovies and chili), remains one of the great classics of Mediterranean cooking.
A fast, generous plant 30-60 cm tall, producing clumps of long dark-green leaves topped by small bouquets of forming yellow flower buds — everything is eaten together: leaves, tender stems, unopened flower buds, even the open flowers (which are also decorative in salad). Classic Italian cooking: leaves briefly blanched to soften the bitterness, then pan-sautéed with garlic, anchovies and bird's-eye chili in generous olive oil, served over pasta, on grilled bread as bruschetta, or as a side to grilled Italian sausages.
A remarkably fast cycle (40-60 days) makes it one of the most accessible vegetables for the impatient gardener, and one of the few that fits well in short intervals between two main crops.
Grower's tip: Rapini hates heat — it bolts within days under a heat wave, ruining the harvest. In Québec, aim for the two ends of the season: early April to mid-May for spring harvest, and mid-August to mid-September for fall harvest (often the most beautiful, sweetened by the cool nights that soften the bitterness and concentrate the sugars). Direct-sow only — it hates being moved. Harvest by cutting the whole clump above the last leaves; the plant sometimes regrows in smaller but edible secondary shoots. Like all Brassica rapa, susceptible to the cabbage worm and the cabbage fly — insect netting useful from sowing on.
- Open-pollinated. Annual to biennial depending on conditions. Insect-pollinated; crosses with other Brassica rapa (turnip, pak choi, etc.) — isolate for seed saving.
- Height: 30-60 cm.
- Maturity: 40-60 days.
- Exposure: full sun in spring and fall; part shade essential in summer.
- Rich, cool, well-drained, neutral soil. Thin to 15-20 cm.
- Direct-sow early April to mid-May for spring harvest, then mid-August to mid-September for fall harvest. Tolerates light autumn frosts well.
