Romanesco Broccoli,One of Three Names

I love food but I hate shopping in grocery stores. The other day we ran out of milk, flour and butter, all at once so I made the move and headed off to our local Spar.

I am always amused and surprised at what interesting items they seem to carry. The Spar, in Constantia, has one of the best selection of Asian sauces of any of the large supermarkets in the area. They also often have a strange array of organic and non-organic veggies piled high in their produce section.

This last hurried visit brought me to a dead halt in the produce section. While walking through the piles of brassicas and root vegetables, my eyes fell upon a bright green globe of pine-tree-like growths that made me stop, smile and inquire what was lying in front of me. I had never tasted Romanesco broccoli otherwise known as broccoflower or Roman cauliflower. This popular Italian vegetable has so many names that I decided that it had to be good. I bought a globe, threw it in the car and headed home to cook it as a side for our dinner.

This broccoli-cauliflower vegetable looked so fresh that I decided to stay with the Italian tradition of steaming the florets and then finishing them off with a lemon-parsley gremolata. I have to say that it is worth a try. We all loved the Romanesco Broccoli in my family and would suggest any and all of trying it for yourself.