Rapini with Fennel and Orange

Rapini with Fennel and Orange

Rapini is an assertively flavored green that is usually sautéed with garlic and chili. I like the idea of using sweet flavors or milder vegetables to balance this aspect of rapini. Ideally, this rapini dish would be used to “sauce” glazed carrots (see “Basic Glazed Carrots”) where half the butter is switched to olive oil, and a pinch of powdered fennel seed is added to the water when cooking the carrots. You could use a little orange juice as the bridge as well. The colors are a nice contrast on the plate, and the mild and sweet carrots are a nice foil for the slightly bitter tang of the rapini.

INGREDIENTS:

1 bunch of rapini, tough stems removed, leaves and stems separated and cleaned

1 small brown onion, peeled and finely diced

1 small fennel bulb, stalks removed, split across the width and cored, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, peeled, de-germed, and minced

½ teaspoon powdered fennel seed

Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Olive oil as needed

1/3 cup orange juice

Method:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the rapini.

Once boiling, salt the water well (1 tablespoon per quart. This seasons the water a little, but more importantly it will raise the water temperature and helps preserve the color of the rapini.) Drop the rapini stems into the water and cook for one minute. Drop in the leaves, and cook 1 minute more. Taste a stem and leaf each to see if they are tender. If not, cook a little longer and taste to check. As soon as the rapini is tender, remove it from the water and drain. Rinse with cool water to prevent over-cooking.

When drained, place on a cutting board and chop finely.

Heat a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add enough oil to cover the pan bottom.

When the oil is hot, add the onion and fennel and sauté until vegetables are soft and starting to color a little.

Add the garlic to the pan and cook until aromatic. Sprinkle in the  fennel seed powder and stir into the vegetables.

Add the rapini to the pan, stirring to combine the greens with the rest of the vegetables. Drizzle with some olive oil to give a shine to the lot and keep it from sticking.

Sauté until the vegetables are hot, then add the orange juice, tossing to get all the vegetables wet with the juice.

Cook until the juice has reduced all the way and has become a little syrupy. Be sure not to burn the vegetables.

Once the juice has cooked away, season with salt and pepper and serve hot.

Chef’s Tips and Notes:

You can use this as a side dish just as it is, but if you wish to use it as a “sauce”, as mentioned above for carrots, or as a topping for grilled lamb chops perhaps, you want to make sure the rapini is chopped quite finely, and that you use extra oil at the end. Do not cook the orange juice all the way down. Instead, reduce by 80%, then add a couple tablespoons of olive oil so the dish is a little loose. Pour over the carrots or toss together. You could use this with pasta, or even small steamed potatoes.

Serves: 4

Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen