Rocket, rucola, arugula

Currently enjoying fashionable attention as a salad leaf, rocket is mentioned in Elizabethan gardening and cookery books at a time when all salads were classified as herbs and grown in herb gardens. This historic definition seems to have confused major food outlets who sell rocket in 55-g / 2-oz packs alongside the mint, rosemary and basil. This must astonish French and Italian cooks who understand that a generous hand is called for when using rocket and who, if their shops tried to charge British prices for it, would go on the rampage. If you have a vegetable garden, then grow it yourself. It crops readily and abundantly in four-week cycles, though it is easily damaged by rain as it nears the time when it is ready for picking. Rocket – also called roquette in France and arugula and rucola in Italy – has a lovely, peppery flavour reminiscent of watercress.