Broccoli Raab, Rapini

Also Broccoli Babe, Brocoletti di Rape, Brocoletto, Choy Sum, Chinese Flowering Cabbage

Resembling thin, leafy, sparsely budded broccoli stalks, broccoli raab might easily go unrecognized in the market. Turnip-related (raab is from rapa, Latin for turnip), it is, in fact, a kind of broccoli, but a nonheading variety. The similarity is skin-deep. If you chance upon it casually, anticipating a mild green vegetable to serve as a string-bean or spinach replacement, you might be taken off guard, for it packs an assertive wallop. But if you meet it head on, expecting a ferocious pungent-bitter taste, quite unlike that of any other vegetable, you might be happily surprised.