Broccoli Rabe (Attempt One)

   Tonight, I have for you a sad story, a tragedy. The title of this tragedy: Lisa In the Kitchen. Most who know me know that I am not a good cook (there are infamous stories that I will not share from my newlywed days of my attempts to impress my husband with recipes that went awry from a Barbie cookbook). I've come a long way, but I'm always learning...and making mistakes in the process. Well, today was our farm share pick up day and I was delighted to discover that our share included Broccoli Rabe.

   For those of you who are not familiar with broccoli rabe, it is a somewhat bitter leafy green with little yellow flowers. The last time my husband cooked it, it was amazing! So tonight, I got brave and thought that I would try to cook it by myself. Well, the whole process took a turn for the worse the minute I turned on the stove. I couldn't figure out how to lock the food processor to chop the garlic, I overboiled the broccoli rabe, I didn't check to see if we had lemons (a necessary ingredient) before I started, and I diluted the soy sauce, which I wasn't supposed to do. Major fail. Luckily, my husband came to the rescue and managed to turn it into something edible.

   I will not share my husband's recipe (mostly because I don't know the details/amounts of the ingredients he used the first time), but I will share a recipe that I found on www.myrecipes.com that is very similar.

Ingredients:

2 pounds broccoli rabe (rapini), trimmed

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Directions:

1. Cook broccoli rabe in boiling water 6 minutes or until crisp-tender.
2. Drain and plunge broccoli rabe into ice water; drain. Coarsely chop.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Stir in broccoli rabe, salt, and peppers.

   I was hoping to be able to share more of a success story along with a recipe with specific instructions, but unfortunately this will have to do. I plan on watching more broccoli rabe get cooked later this week, so hopefully I will have a better recipe to share later on. Until then, enjoy!