Eruca vesicaria ssp. sativa.
The salad herb of the Romans, and one of the most ancient cultivated greens of the Mediterranean. Arugula is mentioned in the writings of Pliny the Elder, Virgil (in his poem Moretum) and Ovid — all three describing it as a stimulating plant with aphrodisiac properties; a reputation that modern science does not support, but which reportedly had it banned from the gardens of certain medieval monasteries.
Native to the Mediterranean basin and more specifically to the Italian peninsula, arugula belongs to the great Brassica family (alongside mustard, cabbage, broccoli and rapini — its characteristic pungent flavour shares the same isothiocyanate chemistry). The names it carries across languages tell a story of fragmented European spread: rucola or rughetta in Italian, rocket in British English, arugula in American English (brought late by Italian immigration to the United States), roquette in metropolitan and North American French. Long shunned by European bourgeois cuisine in favour of milder lettuces, it underwent a spectacular renaissance starting in the 1980s and '90s with the fashion for "Italian salads" and the return to favour of bold flavours.
An open-rosette plant 40-50 cm tall at full maturity (but harvested far younger for the tender leaves), with distinctly lobed and divided leaves that recall a miniature oak — a beautiful vivid green. If allowed to flower, the white-yellow blossoms veined with fine purple lines are themselves edible, lightly pungent, and beautiful scattered on a salad — a little luxury to discover when you can't harvest your whole row in time.
Classic arugula flavour: pungent, peppery, distinctly nutty, with a pleasant touch of bitterness. The pungency rises noticeably with the plant's age and heat (a gardener's secret: spring arugula is mildest, summer arugula is the most biting, and autumn arugula is the most fragrant).
A thousand Mediterranean uses: a simple salad with olive-oil-and-lemon vinaigrette; a crown on pizza margherita after baking (never before — heat wilts it instantly); on butter-and-Parmesan pasta; on raw-beef carpaccio with Parmesan shavings; in bruschetta; in prosciutto-and-cheese sandwiches; or as a basil alternative for pesto (arugula pesto with walnuts and pecorino — the pungent variant of the authentic Genoese pesto already described in our pages). Also excellent cooked — briefly sautéed with garlic like a miniature spinach, added at the end of cooking to a cream-of-potato soup, or melted into a runny omelette.
Grower's tip: Arugula is one of the fastest and easiest plants in the garden — 30-45 days from sowing to harvest, making it the impatient gardener's friend. Direct-sow only (it hates being moved), as soon as the soil can be worked in spring (mid-April in Québec), at 1 cm deep, in a continuous row. Stagger sowings every 2 weeks until late August for a continuous harvest.
WATCH OUT: arugula bolts quickly in summer heat (above 24 °C); for summer cultivation, choose a partly shaded spot or use a shade cloth. Harvest by cutting the outer leaves (cut-and-come-again) — the plant regrows several times. If you let it flower and seed, it self-seeds abundantly and will return naturally in following years, especially in the less-cultivated corners of the garden.
Like all Brassicas already described, susceptible to the cabbage worm and the flea beetle (a small beetle that riddles the leaves with tiny holes) — insect netting is useful in hot climates.
- Open-pollinated. Mediterranean heritage variety. Annual. Insect-pollinated; crosses with other Eruca (rare) — isolate for seed saving. Self-seeds abundantly.
- Height: 40-50 cm at full maturity.
- Maturity: 30-45 days after sowing for young tender leaves.
- Exposure: full sun in spring and fall; part shade essential in summer.
- Loose, well-drained, moderately rich, neutral soil. Thin to 10-15 cm in the row.
- Direct-sow mid-April to late August in Québec; stagger sowings every 2 weeks for continuous harvest. Tolerates light autumn frosts well.
