What's in a name?

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Mmmm well does it? We rarely stop to think about the names of plants and vegetables, but browsing in a French market last week I became intrigued by the impact of different words for familiar produce. The French call potatoes pommes de terres – apples of the earth, cauliflower – chou fleur, leeks – poireau. Is it because the French have a more gastronomic tradition than us that it all sounds so much more …well poetic. Us British like calling a spade a spade and a potato a spud - take beans for instance – there are broad beans – presumably because they are umm … broad, runner beans because they grow on runners … and I wonder what they call French beans in France? Of course most of the words for basic produce are retained from the Anglo Saxon – with the fancy schmancy language of cooking coming in after the Norman Conquest in 1066. For instance the Anglo Saxon word ‘cow’ when appearing on a menu becomes beef from the French word boeuf. When we want to do something posh with potatoes we do Dauphinoises or Boulangere and often peas magically become petit pois.

Well on the allotment the crop tous jours is guess what ‘purple sprouting broccoli’ – mmm I wonder why they called it that maybe because it’s purple, it’s sprouting and …well it’s broccoli. Good thinking – presumably our forbears thought we’d be stumbling around our vegetable plot not recognizing our crops without these blindingly obvious names.

Now we all know that purple sprouting is delicious just lightly boiled or steamed and served with butter, but with such an abundant crop I decided to search for a different way of cooking it. The Italians have a much loved recipe for this. It’s traditionally made with a pasta called orriechette which translates as little ears and its shape is just right for capturing all the delicious, tangy sauce. Oh and when you deliver it to your expectant family don’t say it’s sprouting broccoli say it’s Cima di Rapa – it does sound good in Italian!

Cima di Rapa with Orriechette Pasta

This is a recipe for four

500 g cima di rapa or purple sprouting broccoli

4-5 tablespoons of oil

1 red onion sliced

2 cloves of garlic,sliced

3 anchovies, roughly chopped

1 glass of white wine

1-2 dried chillies

seasoning

500 g orecchiette pasta  (or you can use other shapes)

a knob of butter

freshly grated Parmesan

Cook the broccoli in slightly salted water. Drain and reserve the cooking water for cooking the pasta.

Saute the onion, garlic and anchovies in the oil. Then turn up the heat and pour in the white wine. Mix in the broccoli and add more oil if it looks dry. Crumble in the dried chillies. Lower the heat and keep warm on a low flame.

Meanwhile bring the reserved water to the boil, cook the pasta and then drain. Add the butter and stir in the sauce. Check the seasoning. Serve with grated Parmesan.