Lessons Learned: Broccoli Rabe

Let's get one thing straight. I'm just a regular ol' girl who likes cooking. And eating. I have no training whatsoever in the food field, unless you count my stint as a dishwasher during my high-school days, or when I waited tables at a tiny Italian restaurant in the West Village after college. While it is rare that I make something inedible, I do make silly mistakes. I also manage to get whatever it is that I'm cooking all over my kitchen floor, even if it is something simple, like, say, eggs.

I had a bunch of broccoli rabe from the CSA. The stalks were really quite large, and since I'm into using the whole veggie, I coarsley chopped everything up. I just figured I'd heat up some olive oil, sautee some garlic, add scallions and hot pepper flakes and then cook up the greens (I also added a bit of fresh lemon juice). The plan was to have a simple little dinner of sauteed broccoli rabe and leftover grilled chicken over pasta, with freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano and a glass of red wine.

I should have realized after I chopped up the rabe, that the thicker stalks with the white center probably weren't going to cook down well. And that thought did cross my mind, just as I was dumping all the greens into my sautee pan...

My pasta and rabe was delicious!
I did, however, spend most of my meal picking through and pulling out the thick stems. They tasted the way I imagine snacking on bamboo might taste.

Good thing I had that glass of red to wash it all down.