Minestra di Riso e Luganica

Adapted from an @MarioBatali recipe: Minestra di Riso e Luganica.

Cima di Rapa From the Garden

We picked the first big batch of Cima di Rapa (thinnings went into pizza a couple weeks ago) from our little garden and used up the last of the chicken broth from the Food Stamp Challenge to make one of our favorite soups last night.

Cima di Rapa is very similar to the rather expensive Broccoli Rabe found in little bundles in grocery stores. Each plant has a single small head (about the size of a dime) on a tender stalk. It's also incredibly fast and easy to grow. We planted the seeds for this batch on March 18 - just 46 days ago. The packet indicated 28-35 days, but I suspect that planting in mid-March Philadelphia had as much to do with the extra couple weeks as optimistic advertising copy.

We made this minestra pretty much exactly to the recipe, only substituting olive oil for the lard.

There's still plenty of time to grow your own (from GrowItalian):