Broccoli Rabe kicks culinary butt!

Love it-one of my favorite veggies too. I'm italian so we grew up on it-It is italian collards. Traditionally served cooked in some kind of pig fat.

I cook it in olive oil with lots of garlic and red pepper flakes. Serve it over pasta with parm cheese.

If you blanch it for a few seconds first, it eliminates the bitterness.

what's REALLY good is to make a pesto pasta with it

my pesto sauce recipe:
in a blender put
1/2 cup pine nuts (go ahead and grind up)
then put in 1/4 cup olive oil
Tablespoon powdered garlic
teas. salt
1/3-1/2 cup HOT water
2+ cups fresh basil leaves

after it's all blended up pour in a big bowl with cooked pound of pasta and steamed broccoli rabe. OMG it's sooo good!

hmmn. coincidentally, i just picked a big bunch and am deciding what to do with it (hey, i grew up in an homemade-pasta olive-curing italian family, & we never ate this stuff!)

i'm already doing a red sauce sausage pasta deal, so i'm guessing i'll just saute with garlic in olive oil (that's enough pig fat for the meal, but being in the south it's not like i don't have 5 types of lard available, lol.) the red pepper flakes wouldn't go over too well with my 4 yr old, more's the pity (but the baby would go for it!)