What happens when broccoli rabe goes off
Broccoli rabe, rapini, whatever you want to call it – it’s pretty tasty. And I picked up a bunch the last time I was at the farmers’ market.
So I’ve had broccoli rabe go off once before, and you could tell because the stems got hollow and squishy.
Well, this one was pushing its lifespan, so I checked that and it was fine… possibly because these had been well trimmed by the woman selling them. I also smelled them because I remembered that there had been a cleaning solution kind of smell to the leaves, and I did not detect anything off.
So I went ahead with preparing a delicious meal.
First, I browned a slice of bacon until is was very crispy.
In a pot of water, I boiled a link of turkey sausage I pulled out of the freezer.
When the sausage was cooked through, I pulled it out of the water and pulled off the casing as soon as it was cool enough to handle. Then I sliced the sausage into 1/2″ thick rounds, and put it in the bacon fat to brown.
I also added an onion (cut in half and then sliced), some sliced garlic, and two jalepeno peppers (cut off the seeds and then sliced). Oh, and some sliced bell pepper, too.
Then into the pot of water, I dumped 2 ounces of rotini pasta and brought it back to a boil.
About 3 minutes before the pasta would be ready, I added the stems from the roughly cut up broccoli rabe.
About 1 minute before the pasta would be ready, I added the leaves and buds.
Splash some of the pasta water over the leaves to help them wilt and to add a little more liquid to the dish.
Drain the pasta and then dump the noodles in with the sausage and veggies.
I cut up and added some fresh herbs: fennel sprig and basil (and there might have been a leaf of sage or two)
I put up one portion for freezing, and I poured the rest into a bowl and sprinkled with cheddar from the farmers’ market.
And then two bites in, I got this overwhelming taste of ammonia. URGH!
This would have been a great dish, if the broccoli rabe hadn’t gone off.
Let this be a lesson: eat your greens, and eat them promptly!
I least I had already nibbled on the bacon while making the dish.
~*~
So there’s pretty much 1 recipe for green tomatoes (fried, fried with cheese and tomato sauce, fried in pie, totally fried), but there are a ton of recipes for tomatillos. And, to me, they taste pretty similar.
Can you think of any reason why I shouldn’t try tomatillo recipes with my green tomatoes?