It's all green to me y'all

Yes, another one of Annalena's cryptic titles. What is the rant about today? Well, it's not a real rant, but a bit of a piece on cooking greens, a topic I adddressed back in January on the 21st. That piece was very general. This one is more specific, and it also talks about something that fascinates me, which is how different "cultures" seem to have developed the same techniques for cooking.

There is a belief that Italians like their vegetables crispy, almost half raw, sort of like what you expect a good stir fry to be like. That's not really true. SALADS are expected to be crisp and fresh, but if you look at the world of Italian vegetable cooking, most of them are more toward the softer, somewhat overcooked side. I think that is because Italians realized that many vegetables don't give up their flavor unless you cook them for a while. There is nothing wrong with a crispy "green" tasting plate of vegetables, but veggies like broccoli, or green beans, and so forth, do not give up the flavor that makes them stand out as unique vegetables unless you cook them for a while. Usually, that cooking is slow, and usually, it's accompanied by a liquid plus fat, and a seasoning - usually garlic.
If you were raised in the south of the United States, this style may begin to remind you of what are called "smothered greens." The big difference, I think, is that in American southern cooking the flavoring agent is usually something smoky and meaty, like a turkey leg, or salt pork or something like that (I thank my friend Franklin for reminding me of smoked turkey legs with this style of cooking). It shows you how resourceful people are, especially people who HAD to figure out how to cook certain things, or they would go hungry. To this day, if you grew up with that kind of food, you will know that, regardless of what fancies you eat, you want, no , you NEED that kind of soul satisfying food.

One of the greens that people associate with the American south, is turnip greens. And we have them in Italian cooking too. Betcha ya didn't know that. Well, we do.

"Cima" in Italian is a turnip, and Italians do not eat turnip roots; h owever, they do eat the greens. Cima, for various reasons that I can't really explain, became broccoli rabe in the United States. In Italy, there is cima, and there is rapini, but there really isn't anything like the stuff we have as "broccoli rabb" here. You COULD use that broccoli rabb, but if you're lucky enough to find cima at a farmer's market (ask if the stuff labelled as broccoli rabb is really "Italian turnip." ), use that.

Get yourself a WHOLE LOT of the cima, or broccoli rabb. Three big bunches is about right. Do the "stem test" I taught you: look for where it's really tough and big, and cut it away. You're still going to have plenty. Cut those stems in half.

Then, get a garlic BULB. Not a clove, but a BULB. Peel all of the cloves, and cut them into slivers.

Now, put about four tablespoons of olive oil in a big dutch oven - about four quarts - and heat it at low to medium. Put half the greens in, and then add all of the garlic. Put the rest of the greens on top, and then sprinkle about a teaspoon and a half over it. Cover the pot, and let it cook away for about five minutes. Then, open it and add about the same amount of water, and then cover the pot again. Let it cook for another five minutes.

After ten total minutes of cooking, your greens will have reduced by about a third to a half, and they will have started to soften. Stir them up and cover the pot, and cook them for another ten minutes. By this point, they will have lost some or all of their fresh green color, and be really soft. You can cook them some more (I almost always do), with the pot uncovered, to reduce some of the water, but you don't have to.

I could eat the whole pot of these greens, either alone, or with good bread. I seem to have become immune to garlic, because I don't taste these as "garlicky" when I make them, but for the uninitiated, you may be "feelin it" .

And if you wanted to add some meat to this when you were cooking it, don't let me stop you. If you did, I would suggest getting a CHUNK of pancetta, maybe a quarter pound or so, and cubing it to put in with the greens.

Maybe Franklin and I will exchange pots of green in the future. South meets south.