she's baaaaaaaaaack. And spring is officially here

In one of my two or three favorite movies, "Amacord", the arrival of spring is signalled by the puffball flowers, blowing into the air. It's how the movie begins, and how the movie ends.

Get me started on that movie, and I'll go on for hours. It's one of the few (and, interestingly, the only one of my favorites) that I can watch over and over again. And every time I see it, I see something new.

I bring it up here, because it shows, to me, how artificial calendars are, and how we really need to get back to other things for marking time. For example, I have said that summer ends when field tomatoes are no longer available. Last year, that happened in November. Sometimes it's sooner.

Well, I have markers for spring, too. One of them is the flowering of NYC street trees. If you live in NYC, you know what I mean : all those small white flowers breaking out on all the streets. Did you know they're pear trees? Oh yes. Some years ago, when various blights had killed almost all of NYC's street trees, there was a massive replanting. Pear trees were used, because they are resilient, and very long lived. There is reputedly a pear treee in New England that dates from colonial times. When they planted them, no one ever thought that the trees would fruit or flower. Well, they don't fruit, but they do flower. And it's a real signal that spring is here: you can't argue with what nature does on her own.

But on the level of brass tacks, spring begins when Nevia, the goddess of vegetables, arrives at the farmers' market. And that was TODAY!!!! It means that the days of living on long distance produce are over. Nevia is the first, and I'm most loyal to her through the year. Soon, others, like "blind Mary " (I'll explain THAT one in future blogs), Berried Treasure, and my other favorites, will be along.

For now, Nevia's horde is greenhouse grown. That can't be helped. Even in southern Jersey, the ground has not been warm enough for field crops. But they're coming. I'm waiting for the first rhubarb, the first dandelions, the first... Oh, so many things.

So, today I came home with mounds of salad, lascinato kale, and wintered broccoli rabb, which is what I'm gonna right about today.

What we call broccoli rabb is actually called "cima" in Italian. And the Italian and American vegetables are not the same. "Cima," which you CAN find in farmers' markets, is actually the greens of a turnip. Italians coming to the United States, missing this stronger, and sweeter, relative of broccoli, did what they could and the American version of broccoli rabb was born. It's not a case of one being better than the other, they're just different. The stuff from Nevia is actually closer to the Italian cima, but it has characteristics of the American strains.

What is wonderful about the stuff that Nevia grows is that it 'winters,' i.e, what's in the field, if protected with a cover, will not freeze and die. It DOES change from the cold, becoming sweeter, and gentler, than the rabb will be as it gets warmer, and then hot. But the way to cook it is the way to cook any variation of this wonderful vegetable you can find. (If you're Italian, and can trace your roots to Abruzzo, you can skip the rest of this. You know it's your heritage vegetable. NEVER try to tell an Abruzzesso that his or her way of making it is wrong. You may not live to make your next batch. ). People don't cook it enough, and I think it's because they think it's because they cook it like broccoli, and that's a mistake. (Actually, the way most people cook broccoli is a mistake, but we'll get to that). Here's how you cook this wonderful vegetable.

First, you do NOT let it sit in your fridge. Unlike broccoli, the members of the cima and rabb family do not keep well. If you're not going to use it within two days, don't buy it. Or cook it and save it in cooked form. If you go back in three days, you'll have yellow, stinky, disgusting compost, rather than those beautiful stalks you bought earlier in the week. But if it IS fresh enough, it's a two step cooking process. First, what you do is check the stems. Not at this time of year, but later , the stems will get very tough and inedible. You CAN peel them, and use them, but honestly, I find it too much trouble. I just make a big, strong cut at the point where it goes from tender to tough, and move on with the tender stalks.

You get a big pot of water with some salt going, and add the broccoli rabb. I don't even wait for the stuff to come back to the boil. I just drain it after five minutes, because I'm going to cook it again. I take the drained broccoli, and chop it into bite sized pieces. Then, I get LOTS of olive oil ready (Not an inch, but enough to do more than slick the pan), and I add about six cloves of garlic. You can use less, or you can use more. I let that garlic sizzle for a minute or two, and then I add the rabb, and just turn it with tongs, about 5-10 times. Sometimes, I add some red hot pepper , and sometimes, capers and/or anchovies.

And it's done. I can eat a whole pot of this with bread, and that's dinner. But it's usually served aside some stronger meat, like pork. It DOES go well with sausages, or with bacon. Perhaps one of the best ways to cook it, though, is to "deconstruct what I just did . In that case, what you do is bring some pasta- orecchiete- to the boil in a pot. When you add the pasta, add the raw, chopped rabb and cook them together. While that's happening, heat up about a quarter cup of olive oil with the garlic cloves, until they are just browning. When the pasta and greens are done, drain them, and then add the flavored olive oil to that mix.

Sometimes, I'll put some pine nuts in with this, (in fact, I'll do that with the greens without the pasta, too), and sometimes, I'll add pine nuts and raisins, and make it "alla siciliana".

Try it. They say that if broccoli is good for you, cima is REALLY good for you. It's not hard to make and now....ITS IN SEASON.

Go and look for Nevia. She'll pretend she doesn't know me. And buy her stuff. You'll be glad you did.