Produce industry faces tough times
Someone on this trade magazine for food suppliers is getting their articles to score high in Google news searches, but it’s actually kind of interesting to read about the difficulties being experienced by produce wholesalers here in this unusual year. Now I can see why a bundle of rapini is going for more than $5.
david833 14:11 on 2020-09-25 Permalink
It’s a strange thing, if you’re ever spent an extended period outside Montreal, rapini is surprisingly difficult to find. Like, not just Quebec, but groceries in New York, the San Franicsco, all over. It never really occurred to me that rapini on most grocery shelves is a Montreal (or possibly Canadian?) thing, but it seems to be.
Meezly 14:28 on 2020-09-25 Permalink
Haven’t bought rapini in a while, but usually the only rapini I see is from Andy Boy.
Kate 14:32 on 2020-09-25 Permalink
Meezly: With the pink tag, yes. No other kind ever shows up here. Grown in California, was my impression – another reason it could be expensive right now, if any of the harvests were destroyed by fire or damaged by smoke.
david∞ – I wonder if it’s particularly prized by the Italians who settled here decades ago. Although the person who clued me into it wasn’t Italian, it was the woman who was running Soares’ Portuguese grocery on Duluth, when I lived nearby. “Try this, you’ll like it!” – and she was right!
dhomas 14:51 on 2020-09-25 Permalink
I was going to say the same as Kate: rapini (broccoli rabe, in English) is probably popular in places with large Italian populations. Pro tip: fry it up with hot peppers. So good, if a little unhealthy due to the frying.
Ian 14:56 on 2020-09-25 Permalink
They even sell it at Loblaws in Toronto, it is by no means a Montreal thing.
You also see it used in place of Chinese broccoli in Chinese restaurants sometimes.
david833 16:39 on 2020-09-25 Permalink
Rapini, olive oil, chili pepper flakes, garlic, salt = one of the truly great vegetable dishes.
The stuff in the shops might be from California, but the broccoli rabe you get IN California doesn’t have any bitterness to it. It’s basically baby broccoli. Maybe they grow it for the Canadian market? Or it just finds a home here? I’m not sure about Toronto, but if it’s the same as Montreal, it could be a Canada thing rather than a Montreal thing?
dwgs 13:56 on 2020-09-26 Permalink
I grew up in northern Ontario in a town with a large Italian population and rapini is common there, definitely not just a Montreal thing. It’s also the main ingredient in Marcella Hazan’s favourite dish and she spent a lot time in NYC.
Kate 17:21 on 2020-09-26 Permalink
dwgs, I’m trying to remember where Marcella Hazan mentions rapini. The first paperback volume of “Classic Italian Cooking” is the most thumbed-through and destroyed cookbook I own, but I don’t remember a mention of rapini.
dwgs 08:48 on 2020-09-27 Permalink
I only have her first book and it’s not in that but I’ve come across it elsewhere. Here’s someone else passing it along, http://notderbypie.com/rigatoni-with-broccoli-rabe/
JaneyB 11:03 on 2020-09-28 Permalink
It’s omnipresent in Toronto grocery stores. A foodie friend taught me to boil it first for a few minutes to take away the bitterness then sauté it with olive oil and garlic. Nom-nom!