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Broccolo, Broccoletto
Broccoli, Calabrese
Appears in
By Antonio Carluccio and Priscilla Carluccio
Published 1997
Broccoli belongs to the same family as cabbage and cauliflower and comes in many different varieties. It is formed by thousands of buds of the flower at the top of the plant. If the buds flower the broccoli becomes yellow and that is why the freshness of broccoli is measured by the tightness and the intensity of the deep green-blue colour of the buds.
Broccolo is mostly known as calabrese, because it grows best in Calabria, in Sicily (where, incidentally, broccolo means cauliflower). The most common variety, Piccolo di Verona, is pale green and ready for eating in the early spring, while Grosso Romano or Violetto di Sicilia, as it is also known in Italy, has very pretty conical florets and a distinctive purple colour that turns green during cooking.