One of the great things about belonging to a food co-op is the wide variety of fruits and vegetables we get to try.
With the latest offering through www.bountifulbaskets.org we had the opportunity to try a few new items, one was an heirloom vegetable from the 16thcentury called Romanesco, sometimes referred to as Romanesco Broccoli or Romanesco Cauliflower.
This member of the cauliflower family is commonly served in Italy and has a very mild cauliflower taste with a hint of broccoli.
Romanesco lends itself well to broccoli and cauliflower recipes and is very easy to prep for cooking because of the broccoli like stems on the florets. Romanesco is high in vitamin C, fiber and carotenoids. Served raw this vegetable makes a healthy and delicious finger food (as well as a great conversation piece).
My family and I added it to our dinner vegetable tray with the usual dips. It was a big hit with the entire group, everyone raved about the mild flavor and interesting shape.
The shape is very unique, several people at the co-op pick-up site commented on how it looked like something from the old TV show Star Trek. Each piece is a duplicate of the whole, repeating the pattern several times. This creates a fractal pattern making it somewhat of an anomaly and popular among the math minded.
I would love to see any Romanesco recipes you may have.
Thanks for sharing and I wish you adventurous and happy eating!
Kathy
__________________________________________________________________