Seasonal food: turnip | Life and style | guardian.co.uk:
UK turnip season
The Romans, who distinguished between two types of turnip, the more slender and pointed napus and the rounded rapa.
To this day there is still not a standardised scientific classification of turnips, swedes and their close relative oilseed rape.
Brassica rapa has been cultivated for more than four millennia, making it one of our most venerable vegetables.
Varieties
Turnips are infamous for being an unreliable crop - a variety successful on one plot can be disastrous on another. Popular varieties include Purple Top Milan, Atlantic, and Golden Ball.
How to buy / what to look for
A good turnip is firm and heavy for its size - lightness indicates possible woodiness. Choose smaller specimens, no bigger than a cricket ball if possible, unwashed if you plan to store them for longer than a couple of weeks.
Nutrition
'Roots' and leaves are rich in vitamins and minerals including notable quantities of vitamin C. The greens are also an excellent source of folic acid and calcium
Harvested
June - October
Storage
In a cool, slightly damp place out of direct sunlight (like a root cellar) unwashed turnips will keep for between three and five months. Make sure they're not in contact with each other so the air can circulate freely. In the fridge they should be good for about a fortnight, and the greens for a couple of days.
Basic cooking
Chop off the leaves and long root, peel, slice, braise or sauté and glaze them as they do in France, or roast chunks in a medium oven for 40-50 minutes with a little honey. If plainness is required boil or steam chunks for 20 minutes. The greens are tolerant of all sorts of techniques from a brief steaming to inclusion in soups and stews.
Orecchiette with turnip tops and chilli
Ten exclusive recipes from Giorgio Locatelli's
Orecchiette, from the Italian words "orecchio" (ear) and "etto" (small), is an ear-shaped pasta originating in the beautiful southern region of Italy.
Orecchiette come from Puglia, where they are traditionally handmade.
The joke is that everyone in Puglia has big, bent thumbs from pressing them into the little ear shapes that give these their name.
3 small bunches of turnip tops or broccoli
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 medium red chillies, deseeded and thinly sliced
400g dried orecchiette
2 anchovy fillets
Salt and pepper
Take the leaves and florets of the turnip tops or broccoli from their stalks and blanch them in boiling salted water for about a minute. Drain and squeeze to remove the excess water. Chop very finely.
Warm half the olive oil in a large sauté pan, add the garlic and chilli, and gently cook without allowing them to colour. Then add the turnip tops and toss around. Add another tablespoon of olive oil.
Meanwhile, bring a large pan of water to the boil, salt it, put in the orecchiette and cook for about a minute less than the time given on the packet, until al dente.
Ladle a little of the pasta cooking water into the other pan. Then turn down the heat and add the anchovies. Let them dissolve, without frying them, stirring all the time. Taste and season if necessary .
When the pasta is cooked, drain, and add the pasta to the pan containing the sauce. Toss around for 2-3 minutes, so that the turnip tops cook a little more and begin to cling to the pasta. Add the rest of the olive oil, toss well to coat and serve.
'via Blog this'
UK turnip season
The Romans, who distinguished between two types of turnip, the more slender and pointed napus and the rounded rapa.
To this day there is still not a standardised scientific classification of turnips, swedes and their close relative oilseed rape.
Brassica rapa has been cultivated for more than four millennia, making it one of our most venerable vegetables.
Varieties
Turnips are infamous for being an unreliable crop - a variety successful on one plot can be disastrous on another. Popular varieties include Purple Top Milan, Atlantic, and Golden Ball.
How to buy / what to look for
A good turnip is firm and heavy for its size - lightness indicates possible woodiness. Choose smaller specimens, no bigger than a cricket ball if possible, unwashed if you plan to store them for longer than a couple of weeks.
Nutrition
'Roots' and leaves are rich in vitamins and minerals including notable quantities of vitamin C. The greens are also an excellent source of folic acid and calcium
Harvested
June - October
Storage
In a cool, slightly damp place out of direct sunlight (like a root cellar) unwashed turnips will keep for between three and five months. Make sure they're not in contact with each other so the air can circulate freely. In the fridge they should be good for about a fortnight, and the greens for a couple of days.
Basic cooking
Chop off the leaves and long root, peel, slice, braise or sauté and glaze them as they do in France, or roast chunks in a medium oven for 40-50 minutes with a little honey. If plainness is required boil or steam chunks for 20 minutes. The greens are tolerant of all sorts of techniques from a brief steaming to inclusion in soups and stews.
Orecchiette with turnip tops and chilli
Ten exclusive recipes from Giorgio Locatelli's
Orecchiette, from the Italian words "orecchio" (ear) and "etto" (small), is an ear-shaped pasta originating in the beautiful southern region of Italy.
Orecchiette come from Puglia, where they are traditionally handmade.
The joke is that everyone in Puglia has big, bent thumbs from pressing them into the little ear shapes that give these their name.
3 small bunches of turnip tops or broccoli
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 medium red chillies, deseeded and thinly sliced
400g dried orecchiette
2 anchovy fillets
Salt and pepper
Take the leaves and florets of the turnip tops or broccoli from their stalks and blanch them in boiling salted water for about a minute. Drain and squeeze to remove the excess water. Chop very finely.
Warm half the olive oil in a large sauté pan, add the garlic and chilli, and gently cook without allowing them to colour. Then add the turnip tops and toss around. Add another tablespoon of olive oil.
Meanwhile, bring a large pan of water to the boil, salt it, put in the orecchiette and cook for about a minute less than the time given on the packet, until al dente.
Ladle a little of the pasta cooking water into the other pan. Then turn down the heat and add the anchovies. Let them dissolve, without frying them, stirring all the time. Taste and season if necessary .
When the pasta is cooked, drain, and add the pasta to the pan containing the sauce. Toss around for 2-3 minutes, so that the turnip tops cook a little more and begin to cling to the pasta. Add the rest of the olive oil, toss well to coat and serve.
'via Blog this'
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