Italian Baked Broccoli Rabe | Cime di Rapa Gratinate con Pecorino, Limone e Pangrattato all'Aglio
Cime di rapa carry enough bitterness to hold a plate on their own, which is exactly why they are so often ruined. The usual treatment is a long boil until the stems collapse, then enough garlic and chilli to cover what the water took out. This version does the opposite: a very short blanch in heavily salted water sets the green and softens the raw fibrous edge.
The greens then go into a hot pan with sliced garlic and peperoncino, and into a shallow dish under Pecorino Romano, a little Parmigiano Reggiano and coarse breadcrumbs worked with raw garlic and lemon zest. The oven runs hot and the time is short: the aim is a crust, not a second cooking. Lemon juice arrives at the very end, off the heat.
What reaches the table should move between four things in one mouthful: clean bitterness, the salt of aged sheep cheese, the crack of a toasted crumb and a lift of citrus.
Yield: 4 side servings. Prep: 25 minutes. Cook: 20 minutes. Total: about 45 minutes. Difficulty: easy to intermediate. Course: contorno. Region: Puglia, the Terra di Bari and the Salento.
The Story
Cime di rapa are the flowering tops of Brassica rapa sylvestris, a turnip relative grown for its leaves and buds rather than its root, and in Italy they belong above all to Puglia, from the Terra di Bari through the Murgia into the Salento. Campania has them too, cooked there as friarielli. Growers still name the varieties by how long they take to reach the field: quarantina, sessantina, novantina. The later the variety, the more pronounced the bitterness.
The season is the cold half of the year, roughly October to April, and it matters more than any other detail. Cime di rapa cut after a frost are sweeter, because the plant converts starch to sugar to protect itself. A bunch bought in warm weather is a different vegetable: thin, flowery, harshly bitter and quick to turn grey.
The breadcrumb layer is not borrowed from French gratin cooking. Mollica di pane, coarse crumbs of stale bread fried in olive oil with garlic, is the southern Italian answer to grated cheese for households that could not afford much of it, and it appears across Puglia, Basilicata and Sicily. Pecorino Romano sits beside it comfortably because Puglia has been sheep country as long as it has been wheat country, with the old transhumance routes bringing flocks down from Abruzzo.
Ingredients
For the cime di rapa
Cime di rapa, whole bunches, 2 lb (900 g) before trimming
Coarse sea salt for the blanching water, 2 tbsp (30 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 3 tbsp (45 ml)
Garlic cloves, thinly sliced, 3
Dried peperoncino flakes, 1/2 tsp (1 g)
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Fresh lemon juice, 1 tbsp (15 ml), added off the heat
For the garlic breadcrumbs
Coarse fresh breadcrumbs from day old rustic bread, 1 cup (70 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Garlic clove, finely grated, 1
Finely grated lemon zest, 1 tsp (2 g)
Flat leaf parsley, finely chopped, 2 tbsp (8 g)
Fine sea salt, 1 small pinch
For the gratin topping
Pecorino Romano, finely grated, 3/4 cup (65 g)
Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, 2 tbsp (18 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
For finishing
Finely grated lemon zest, from 1/2 lemon
Flat leaf parsley leaves, small, 8 to 12
Extra virgin olive oil, a few drops per portion
Peperoncino flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
Trimming and sorting the bunches
Snap off the bottom inch of each stalk where it is woody and pale, and peel any stem thicker than a pencil as you would asparagus. Discard yellow or slimy leaves. Sort what is left into thick stems and leaves with buds, since they do not enter the water together. From 2 lb (900 g) untrimmed expect about 1 1/2 lb (680 g).
Blanching to set the colour
Bring 4 quarts (3.8 litres) of water to a hard boil and add the 2 tbsp (30 g) of coarse salt. It should taste openly salty: this is the only chance the stems get to be seasoned from the inside. Drop in the thick stems, count 60 seconds, then add the leaves and buds for 60 to 90 seconds more. You want vivid green and a stem that bends without snapping, not tenderness.
Cooling and squeezing the greens
Lift the greens into water and ice and stop the cooking at once, since residual heat takes them from bright to olive within minutes. Drain, then squeeze in handfuls: press, open the handful, press again. Wet greens steam instead of frying and release liquid under the gratin that turns the crumb to paste. Chop into rough 2 inch (5 cm) lengths.
Building the garlic and peperoncino base
Set a wide saute pan over medium heat with the 3 tbsp (45 ml) of olive oil and the sliced garlic. Bring the garlic up slowly so it perfumes the oil over two or three minutes and turns pale gold without browning: burnt garlic collides with the bitterness of the vegetable rather than balancing it. Add the peperoncino flakes and let them bloom about 15 seconds.
Frying the greens rather than stewing them
Raise the heat to medium high, add the chopped greens and spread them out. Season with the 1/2 tsp (3 g) of fine sea salt and several grinds of pepper. Let them sit still 45 seconds so the underside colours, then toss and keep them moving 2 to 3 minutes more. They should sizzle audibly throughout: if you hear nothing and see steam, the pan is crowded or the greens are still wet.
Toasting the breadcrumbs separately
Warm the 2 tbsp (30 ml) of olive oil in a small pan over medium heat and add the crumbs with a pinch of salt. Stir almost constantly for 3 to 4 minutes until evenly golden and smelling of toast. Off the heat, wait 30 seconds, then stir in the grated garlic, lemon zest and parsley. In a hot pan the garlic scorches and the citrus oils evaporate.
Assembling the gratin
Heat the oven to 450°F (230°C) with the rack in the upper third. Spread the greens loosely in a shallow dish of about 9 by 12 inches (23 by 30 cm), since a tight layer traps steam and softens the crust from below. Scatter the Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano Reggiano over the surface, then the breadcrumbs, then the last 1 tbsp (15 ml) of oil.
Gratinating and finishing with lemon
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the cheese bubbles at the edges and the crumb is deep golden. If it needs colour, give it 60 to 90 seconds under a hot broiler and do not walk away. Rest 2 minutes. Then, just before serving, add the 1 tbsp (15 ml) of lemon juice, the extra zest, the parsley leaves and a few drops of oil. Lemon juice baked in turns flat and metallic; added at the end it reads as brightness.
Plating
This is a contorno and it is best served from the dish it was gratinated in, carried to the table hot and portioned there. The crust is the reason the dish exists and every transfer costs some of it, so a shallow ceramic or cast iron dish that goes from oven to table is worth more than any plating technique.
Serve it hot but not straight from the oven. Two or three minutes of rest lets the melted Pecorino set enough to hold a portion together, and brings the surface down to a temperature where the bitterness is readable. Warm the plates to around 120°F (50°C), since a cold plate strips the heat from a thin layer of greens within a minute.
Keep the finishing light: a few small parsley leaves, a little lemon zest grated at the table, a thread of good oil. Resist more cheese at the end, which makes the whole thing read as salty rather than bitter and salty. It sits naturally beside roast lamb, grilled pork or braised sausages.
Professional Technique
The technique that defines this dish is two stage cooking of a bitter brassica, and specifically stopping the first stage early. Cime di rapa contain glucosinolates, the compounds responsible for their bitterness, and those are water soluble. A long boil leaches most of them out, which is why boiled cime di rapa taste flat. A blanch of under three minutes removes only the harshest fraction while setting the chlorophyll.
The second stage is a genuine fry, not a reheat. Once squeezed dry the greens can reach a surface temperature high enough to brown, and a wide pan over medium high heat gives the leaf edges real caramelisation in two minutes. Those edges are impossible while the greens still hold blanching water, because evaporating it pins the pan at 212°F (100°C) until it is gone.
The layering of the topping is the third piece, and the part most cooks get backwards. Under a 450°F (230°C) oven, cheese melts, flows and browns while breadcrumbs simply dehydrate and toast. Crumbs placed underneath absorb the melting cheese and the layer fuses into one chewy sheet. With cheese below and crumbs above, the cheese anchors to the greens and the crumbs stay separate and audible.
Texture and Moisture Control
Every failure in this recipe is a moisture failure. Cime di rapa are roughly ninety percent water and hold more after blanching, trapped between leaves and inside hollow stems. That water has to leave before the greens meet the pan or the oven. Squeeze small handfuls rather than the whole mass, which simply compacts around a wet core. If a squeezed handful still runs liquid, squeeze again.
Inside the dish, moisture moves upward. A dense layer generates steam with nowhere to go except through the cheese and the crumb, softening both within minutes of leaving the oven. Spread the greens loosely, no more than an inch deep, so the steam escapes at the edges. That is also why the dish sits on the upper rack, where the air is driest and the radiant heat strongest.
The crumb needs the right starting material. Coarse crumbs from day old rustic bread with an open structure hold up; fine dry commercial crumbs behave like sand and go greasy, and fresh bread is too wet ever to crisp. Toast them to a full even gold before assembly, because a crumb that goes in pale stays pale once the cheese below has finished bubbling.
Professional Mise en Place
Everything here can be done in advance except the final eight minutes.
Equipment and tools
Large pot, at least 6 quarts (5.7 litres), for blanching
Bowl of water and ice for shocking the greens
Wide saute pan, 12 inches (30 cm), and a small pan for the crumbs
Shallow ovenproof gratin dish, about 9 by 12 inches (23 by 30 cm)
Microplane for the cheese, garlic and lemon zest
Offset spatula for portioning
Prepared ahead
Greens trimmed, blanched, squeezed and chopped, up to 1 day ahead, covered and refrigerated
Crumbs toasted in oil and salt, up to 2 days ahead, airtight, with garlic, zest and parsley stirred in only on the day
Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano Reggiano grated, up to 4 hours ahead, covered and cold
Garlic sliced and lemon zested on the day only, since both go acrid overnight
Service setup
Oven at 450°F (230°C), rack in the upper third, preheated 20 minutes
Greens fried and spread in the dish, held up to 1 hour at room temperature
Cheese and crumbs in separate bowls, added only as the dish goes in
Lemon juiced at the last moment, parsley held under a damp cloth
Plates warmed to about 120°F (50°C) if plating individually
Chef Tips
Buy cime di rapa with tight closed buds and firm upright stems, between late autumn and early spring. Open yellow flowers mean the plant has gone past its point: coarse bitterness, stems fibrous to the base. If only flowering bunches are available, buy a third more by weight.
Taste the Pecorino Romano before grating it. Salt levels vary enormously between producers, and a very sharp wheel over a vegetable this assertive flattens the dish. If yours is aggressive, shift the ratio towards the Parmigiano Reggiano and cut the salt in the pan to a generous pinch.
Save the blanching water. It is green, well salted and full of the flavour of the vegetable, and it makes an excellent base for orecchiette the next day or for loosening a bean puree.
For an anchovy note, melt two salted anchovy fillets into the oil with the garlic at the start. Not later, and not more than two: anchovy and Pecorino Romano both carry salt and the dish crosses the line quickly. Leave them out to keep it vegetarian.
Common Mistakes
Boiling instead of blanching. Ten minutes in water leaches out the bitterness that gives the dish its point and collapses the stems into a grey mass. Keep the water stage under three minutes.
Not squeezing hard enough. The commonest failure by a wide margin. Residual water stops the greens frying, then releases into the dish and softens the crust from underneath. Squeeze in handfuls until nothing runs.
Putting the crumbs under the cheese. They absorb the melting cheese and the two fuse into one chewy layer. Cheese on the greens, crumbs on the cheese, oil last.
Adding raw garlic and zest to a hot crumb pan. Grated garlic scorches in seconds at frying temperature and the citrus oils evaporate. Off the heat, wait thirty seconds, then stir them through.
Squeezing lemon over before baking. Cooked lemon juice loses its top notes and leaves a dull sourness. The acidity has to arrive after the dish leaves the oven.
Using fine dry breadcrumbs from a canister. They behave like sand, soak up the oil at once and bake into a greasy skin. Coarse crumbs from day old rustic bread are a requirement, not a refinement.
Wine Pairing
Locorotondo DOC: The local answer, from Verdeca and Bianco d'Alessano grown in the Valle d'Itria barely an hour from where these greens grow. Pale, dry and low in alcohol, it finishes on a lightly bitter almond note that runs alongside the cime di rapa instead of cancelling them, and its acidity handles the salt of the Pecorino Romano.
Offida Pecorino DOCG: From the Marche, named for the grape rather than the cheese. Pecorino gives a dry white of unusually firm structure, with herbal, faintly aniseed aromatics and a mineral grip that stands up to the garlic and the chilli. Body enough for the melted cheese, acidity enough to reset the palate between mouthfuls of a rich crumb.
Greco di Tufo DOCG: Campania is the other homeland of this vegetable, so the regional logic holds. Greco is broad and slightly waxy, with stone fruit and a sulphurous volcanic edge from the tuff soils, and that texture carries the Pecorino Romano. The tension between its ripe fruit and its hard mineral finish mirrors that between sweet stems and bitter buds.
Etna Bianco DOC: Carricante grown on volcanic slopes gives one of the most acidic dry whites in Italy, lemon and wet stone with a saline finish. It cuts through the olive oil and the toasted crumb, and its citrus picks up the zest and juice added at the end. Choose a young unoaked bottling, since an aged one brings a nuttiness the dish does not need.
Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo DOC: For anyone who wants something other than a white. A dark saturated rosato of Montepulciano with red cherry fruit, a savoury almost bloody depth and only a trace of tannin. Served at around 54°F (12°C) it has fruit enough for the browned leaf edges and the caramelised cheese, and it meets a bitter brassica without turning metallic.
Storage & Reheating
Baked, this keeps refrigerated in a covered container for up to 3 days, and the flavour is good on the second day even though the crust is not. Do not cover it while still warm: trapped condensation runs back into the crumb overnight. Cool it uncovered, then cover and refrigerate.
Reheat only in a dry oven, never in a microwave, which steams the crumb and turns the cheese to rubber. Spread the portion in a shallow dish, give it 8 to 10 minutes at 400°F (200°C) and scatter freshly toasted crumbs over the top for the last 2 minutes. Often better still, serve it at room temperature with fresh lemon zest.
Components store better than the finished dish. Blanched squeezed greens keep 1 day refrigerated and freeze for up to 2 months, packed flat and thawed in the refrigerator, though they need squeezing again. Plain toasted crumbs keep 2 days airtight. Do not freeze the assembled gratin: the cheese separates and the greens go watery.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 portions:
Calories: 310 kcal
Total Fat: 23 g
Saturated Fat: 6 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Unsaturated Fat: 16 g
Cholesterol: 20 mg
Sodium: 620 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 16 g
Fiber: 5 g
Total Sugars: 3 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 12 g
Lactose: 0.3 g
Principal micronutrients: vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin A, folate, calcium, iron, potassium
These figures are estimates. Sodium varies most, since the salt in the blanching water is poured away rather than eaten and the salt in the Pecorino Romano differs sharply between producers.
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